Eight killed after Egypt soccer verdict

FOURTEEN people have been killed in riots outside the main prison in Port Said following a controversial verdict related to one of the world's deadliest incidents of soccer violence.

Two police were shot dead outside the prison when angry relatives tried to storm the facility to free the defendants on trial, 21 of whom were earlier sentenced to death.

The death toll has risen to 14 after the clash, in which police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd outside the prison.

At least 75 people were injured.

Egyptian security officials say the military is being deployed to the city.

Port Said residents also cut off the main road leading to the city.

Officials spoke anonymously in line with regulations.

Earlier in the courtroom, families of the deceased wailed and raised their hands in the air shouting "Allahu Akbar", Arabic for "God is great".

The judge said in his statement read live on state TV that he would announce the verdict for the remaining 52 defendants on March 9.

Among those on trial are nine security officials.

The soccer melee on February 1, 2012 between Port Said's Al-Masry fans and Cairo's Al-Ahly fans was the world's deadliest soccer violence in 15 years, killing 74 people.

As is customary in Egypt, the death sentences will be sent to a top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for approval.

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Vic man dies following arrest

VICTORIA Police's professional standards watchdog will investigate the death of a man who had been in police custody for intoxication.

Police had arrested the 53-year-old man in Mildura, in the state's far northwest, on Wednesday.

During a routine check at 6.20pm (AEDT), officers noticed he was breathing heavily and unresponsive, Victoria Police said in a statement on Saturday.

Paramedics were called immediately, and the man was taken to Mildura Base Hospital, but died at 10.30pm on Thursday, the statement said.

The Professional Standards Command will oversee the investigation into the man's death and a report will be prepared for the Coroner.

The incident has also been referred to the Office of Police Integrity in line with standard procedure, Victoria Police said.

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ACT storms spoil fireworks display

FIERCE thunderstorms across Canberra have prompted almost 300 calls for help and forced the cancellation of the city's Australia Day fireworks.

The ACT State Emergency Service (ACTSES) said the storms, which lashed the city from around 6.30pm (AEDT), left flash flooding, fallen power lines and tree branches in their wake.

Most of the 295 calls for assistance came from residents in the northern suburbs, ACTSES said.

The ACT government cancelled the city's planned fireworks display, saying in a statement it was a necessary safety precaution due to the storms and flooding.

ACTEW AGL electricity crews were also fixing isolated power outages across the territory.

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Mali Islamists say ready for hostage talks

AN al Qaeda-linked Islamist group in Mali says it is ready to negotiate the release of a French hostage, as a French-led offensive to rout Islamists from the north gathered steam.

"The MUJAO is ready to negotiate the release of Gilberto," said Walid Abu Sarhaoui by phone, spokesman for the Movement for Jihad and Oneness, referring to Gilberto Rodriguez Leal who was kidnapped in November.

The spokesman, speaking on the 16th day of the French-led campaign which has halted the Islamist advance south, said: "We Muslims can come to an understanding on the issue of war."

Gilberto Rodriguez Leal, a 61-year-old French national of Portuguese origin, was seized on November 20 by armed men in western Mali near the border with Senegal and Mauritania while travelling by car.

His kidnapping was claimed by MUJAO.

A total of seven French hostages are being held in the Sahel, of whom six are captives of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

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New air force raids in Damascus province

SYRIA'S air force has launched new raids on rebel-held towns east of Damascus a day after President Bashar al-Assad attended prayers at a Damascus mosque.

The army pounded opposition-held areas of battered Homs in central Syria, as it stepped up a campaign to reclaim areas of "the capital of the revolution", said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"Warplanes made several air strikes on towns and villages in the Eastern Ghouta region" near Damascus, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers across Syria for its reporting.

Eastern Ghouta is home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army's best organised and fiercest groups.

Assad attended prayers at a Damascus mosque on Thursday in a rare public appearance to mark Prophet Mohammed's birthday.

Appearing in public for the first time since a rare speech on January 6, he was shown in a live broadcast, flanked by Grand Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, the highest Sunni religious authority in Syria, and the religious endowments minister.

In a fresh bid to find a solution to the bloody civil war, UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealed again to members of the Security Council to overcome their divisions.

And Syria's interior ministry told political opposition abroad wishing to participate in a national dialogue proposed by Assad they were "authorised" to return to the country.

Clashes pitting rebels against troops raged overnight on the edges of the Yarmuk refugee camp, which has seen frequent violence in the past few weeks, especially since two air raids in mid-December.

Once home to some 150,000 Palestinians, Yarmuk now also acts as a makeshift refuge for hundreds of Syrians fleeing violence elsewhere in the country.

"But it is no longer a safe place. Thousands of people have left the camp, Palestinians and Syrians, in search of another refuge," said Abu Omair, an activist from Damascus.

Friday's violence came a day after at least 98 people were killed across the country, among them 33 civilians, 26 soldiers and 39 rebel fighters, said the watchdog.

Meanwhile on Thursday, a jihadist suicide attacker killed at least eight military intelligence troops, said the Observatory.

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Man charged with murder over WA death

A 31-YEAR-OLD man has been charged with murder over the death of a 23-year-old man after an altercation at a home in the Peel region south of Perth.

Police were called to a disturbance at a home in the Bunbury suburb of Withers about 10:45pm WST on Thursday and found the man, 23, with serious injuries resulting from a fight at a nearby address.

The injured man was taken to Bunbury Hospital where he died a short time later.

On Friday, police said they had charged a 31-year-old man from Withers with murder over the incident.

He is due to appear in the Bunbury Magistrates Court on Saturday.

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Peris draft 'tokenism', Bernardi says

CONTROVERSIAL Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has labelled the federal government's drafting of Aboriginal Olympian Nova Peris "tokenism of the highest order", drawing an angry response from Labor.

Senator Bernardi told Adelaide radio on Friday that while Peris was an extraordinary athlete, her skills as a politician were yet to be demonstrated.

"I think it's tokenism of the highest order," he said of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's decision to parachute Ms Peris to the top of Labor's Northern Territory Senate ticket - ahead of 15-year incumbent Trish Crossin.

"Basically a sitting senator is being dumped by the prime minister because she's got the wrong colour skin, and I think that's an appalling precedent."

Senator Bernardi - who was dumped from a senior coalition role last year for linking homosexuality to bestiality - also said while Ms Peris could turn out to be a wonderful member of parliament, her path had been tarnished.

"Because there is always going to be that cloud, if you like, of how did you get here and do you deserve to be here?"

But Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said Ms Peris was a great advocate for Aboriginal people.

"It's a sad reflection on Liberal politicians that so many of them are trying to run down a determined and driven Aboriginal woman who is seeking to represent her community in federal parliament," Ms Macklin said.

Ms Gillard later defended her choice of Ms Peris.

"I've decided that our political party will support a woman who I think is very likely to become the first indigenous woman in Australian parliament," she told ABC radio in Canberra.

She said it would depend on the voters of the Northern Territory.

"But I'm very optimistic that she'll right that part of our history for us."

The opposition leader on Friday reiterated the episode raised fresh questions about Ms Gillard's judgment.

"And I can fully understand why so many Labor MPs are today wondering whether their own jobs are safe," he said.

"This is a prime minister who deals ruthlessly with anyone who is standing in her way."

Prominent Aboriginal leader and Australian of the Year finalist Tom Calma leapt to Ms Peris' defence on Friday, saying the attacks on her were unacceptable.

Ms Peris on Thursday responded to unsubstantiated rumours about her handling of education programs in the Northern Territory and denied misusing NT Department of Education assets.

She released a statement saying the whispers about her departure from the department were "malicious and unfounded rumours".

Dr Calma said all aspiring politicians must be held accountable but should not be subject to vitriol.

"The scrutiny is fine, the vitriol is unacceptable," the social justice campaigner told reporters in Canberra.

If all goes to Ms Gillard's plan, Ms Peris will be the first indigenous woman elected to the federal parliament.

The ALP national executive meets next Tuesday and is expected to endorse Ms Peris as the federal party's NT Senate candidate.

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Buttrose named Australian of the Year

AUSTRALIAN of the Year Ita Buttrose wants to promote a more positive approach to ageing by tackling community attitudes toward older people.

The 71-year-old was on Friday honoured at a ceremony in Canberra for her extraordinary and groundbreaking media career and role in raising awareness of health and media issues.

Ms Buttrose said she was honoured to follow in the footsteps of so many distinguished Australians.

"This is one of the proudest moments of my life," she said, her voice quavering slightly.

"How wonderful to be honoured for doing something that I've thoroughly enjoyed doing for most of my life - being a journalist and working for causes for which I have a genuine passion and commitment."

Born in Sydney's Potts Point, Ms Buttrose began her career as a 15-year-old copy girl at The Australian Women's Weekly, before scoring a spot as a cadet journalist on the women's section at the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph. She was appointed women's editor of the newspapers aged 23.

But it was as founding editor of Cleo magazine that she shot to national prominence in the 1970s.

Cleo was an instant hit, becoming the top selling monthly women's magazine in the country.

Three years later she was appointed editor of The Women's Weekly.

In 1980 she became the first woman editor of an Australian metropolitan newspaper - the Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph, and later the Sunday Telegraph.

Ms Buttrose was the first woman appointed to the News Limited Board in 1981 and last year she was the subject of a TV drama, Paper Giants.

Ms Buttrose has used her prominence to raise awareness of health issues such as breast cancer, HIV/AIDS and prostate cancer.

She now plans to tackle the issue of ageing and promote preventative health.

"I believe preventative health strategies need to begin in childhood and followed all through life," Ms Buttrose said.

She has been national president of Alzheimer's Australia since 2011 and is also vice president emeritus of Arthritis Australia.

Alzheimer's Australia applauded her commitment to improving the quality of life of people with dementia.

"We can beat dementia, we can remove the stigma and the sense of shame that comes with diagnosis if we increase community understanding," Ms Buttrose said.

"I look forward to many more years to contributing what I can towards the health challenges facing our country."

Ms Buttrose's children Kate and Ben Macdonald were in the audience to see their mother honoured at the Canberra ceremony.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said considering it had been some time since a woman last won the award, it was nice to see Ms Buttrose bag the honour.

Women like Ms Buttrose had helped advance the role of women in the workplace, and Ms Gillard said she herself had much to be thankful for as Australia's first female prime minister.

"It's only possible for me to be here in this position because I'm standing on the shoulders of women who have come before," Ms Gillard told ABC Radio.

"And I'd like to hope that me doing this position will make a difference for the women to come."

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Vic teacher pay talks to resume

THE Victorian government and the state teachers' union have agreed to resume talks in a bid to resolve their bitter, lengthy dispute over pay and conditions.

The Australian Education Union (AEU) Victorian branch says a meeting between the parties is scheduled for Thursday January 31.

AEU Victorian branch president Meredith Peace says the resumption of talks is positive, but is warning the government it won't back down.

"The Baillieu government has dragged this dispute out for over two years by refusing to listen to the concerns of education staff, parents and the broader community," Ms Peace said in a statement on Thursday.

The Baillieu government has threatened legal action against the union, which is planning fresh industrial action from the start of the new school year.

The AEU has scheduled another mass teacher strike on February 14, as well as a ban on working beyond the 38-hour week.

Ms Peace said the AEU put a significantly revised offer of 4.2 per cent per year over three years to the Baillieu Government in November but has yet to receive a formal response.

The government has long stood by its offer of an annual pay rise of 2.5 per cent with any further increases to be offset by productivity gains.

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Two Aussies held over Phuket shooting

TWO Australian men facing charges of attempted murder after a shooting in the Thai resort island of Phuket have been transferred to the main prison pending a court hearing.

John Edward Cohen, 33, from NSW, and Tasmanian Adam Lewis Shea, 26, were detained late on Tuesday after a shooting that left two German tourists injured, one seriously.

Late on Thursday the men were transferred from police holding cells to the main prison in Phuket, where they will stay until Thai prosecutors finalise the case against the men, legal sources told AAP.

Thai police investigations are examining possible links between the men and an Australian outlaw motorcycle gang.

Cohen and Shea were arrested after allegedly pursuing a Danish man who they had a dispute with over the purchase of a $A10,000 bike.

Earlier on Tuesday the men had been expected to appear in court to settle the issue but the Danish man failed to appear. Thai police are now searching for the man.

Local media report Cohen told police the Danish man had sent a group of men to his Phuket residence. Cohen, who runs a tattoo business in Phuket, told police he feared for his safety and had "decided to make a move first".

The shooting occurred after the Danish man was seen leaving a hotel near Patong Beach.

Two German tourists, Johann Baschenegger, 42, and Joseph Woerner, 71, were wounded by stray bullets.

CCTV footage showed the German men racing back into the Baan Pirin Hotel clutching wounds to the arms.

Senior Thai police said the burst of fire in the middle of a tourist area called for "the highest penalties under the law".

The men have yet to make an official plea, which will be presented to the court at the next hearing, expected within 12 days.

Thai police sources said the men's lawyers could lodge a bail application to the court in the interim.

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UK not turning its back on Europe: Cameron

UK PM David Cameron is set to face top politicians and business leaders at The World Economic Forum. Source: AAP

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has told the World Economic Forum in Davos that he is not turning his back on Europe, after angering his EU partners by announcing plans for a referendum on membership.

Cameron insisted on Thursday that his vow in a speech in London on Wednesday to let the British people vote on the issue by the end of 2017 would not deter foreign investors.

"This is not about turning our backs on Europe - quite the opposite.

"It's about how we make the case for a more competitive, open and flexible Europe, and secure the UK's place within it."

Cameron played down comments by his main European partners that Britain could not pick and choose what it wanted from the EU, and reiterated his view that the bloc needed urgent reforms to make it competitive.

"What I'm proposing is not just change for Britain but also change for Europe," the British premier said.

"We have to be frank about our performance. We are falling behind in the world. We're over-regulating our business, we're adding too much to their costs. We're leaving our citizens behind.

"And that's why I say that Europe too often has been a cause of cost to business and complaints to our citizens and we need to deal with that not just for Britain's sake but for everyone's sake in the EU."

Asked whether uncertainty could deter businesses from investing in Britain - a question that drew a round of applause - Cameron replied: "There is a debate underway already about Britain's place in the European Union, business knows that.

"It is much better to be frank and open about that and set out the pathway where we're going to resolve this issue in a way that will actually benefit business, because we'll end up with a more competitive, more open Europe."

Cameron said British business leaders - including more than 50 who wrote a letter to the Times newspaper on Thursday - "say that this is a sensible approach."

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Perth firefighters contain Trigg bushfire

A BUSHFIRE that threatened lives and homes in the northern Perth suburb of Trigg has been contained.

Several roads remain closed including West Coast Highway between Pearl Parade and Karrinyup Road, Elliot Road, and Karrinyup Road between West Coast Highway/Marmion Avenue and West Coast Drive.

Firefighters fought the blaze on the ground and in the air.

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Cane toads and utes at NT Aust Day fun

CANE toad racing and utes may not be what springs to mind when you imagine Australia Day celebrations, but in the Northern Territory it is all part of the fun.

A huge storm threw last year's Australia Day plans in Darwin into chaos, with strong winds and rain shutting down many of the events, but in 2013 extreme weather is not expected.

For people not afraid to get out of bed in the early hours, from 7am (CST) there is a 2km or 4.5km fun run being held along The Esplanade in Darwin.

Dragonboat races, barbecues and rugby sevens action are all on offer during the day.

Among the more unusual events in the Top End are the annual Nightcliff cane toad races and the great Aussie thong throw.

With the wet season heralding mating season the toads are said to be extra jumpy, making the winner difficult to pick.

The ute run, where people decorate their cars and dogs in Australia Day themes and drive them to Darwin's Greyhound Club, will also make its return this year.

Darwin's Australia Day ambassador is Aboriginal artist John Kundereri Moriarty, who will attend a flag raising ceremony, Gala Ball and a multi-cultural celebration.

The Oz Fusion concert will be held at Marrara and will include different dancers showing off Aboriginal, Chinese, African and Irish dance styles.

Tourism NT is trying to take advantage of Australia Day, using January 26 to launch its latest marketing campaign, "Australia's Unexplored Backyard".

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European stocks edge higher at open

EUROPE'S main stock markets have gained slightly at the start of trading.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading companies rose 0.18 per cent to 6,190.02 points at the start of trading on Wednesday.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 index rose 0.09 per cent to 7,702.92 points and in Paris the CAC 40 climbed 0.06 per cent to 3,743.07.

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Australian men held over Thai shooting

TWO Australian men have been arrested in Phuket over the accidental shooting of two German tourists.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman confirmed John Edward Cohen, 33, from NSW, and Adam Lewis Shea, 26, from Tasmania, had been arrested in connection with the shooting.

Cohen, a long-time resident of the island, allegedly fired a pistol and accidentally hit the tourists at Patong Beach on Tuesday, they said.

The Phuket Wan newspaper said Johann Baschenegger, 41, was admitted to hospital in a serious condition.

Joseph Woerner, 71, was in a satisfactory condition.

Police said the shooting occurred around 7.45pm near the Baan Pirin Hotel where the Germans were staying.

The Australians allegedly fled after the shooting but were tracked down to a local bar.

Both men are reported to have links with a motorcycle club known as the Rebel MC.

Lawyers were on Wednesday trying to have the men released on bail.

Officials said the Australian men were receiving consular assistance.

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Netanyahu scrambles to keep his job

Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud-Beitenu list has won the Israeli election by a narrow majority. Source: AAP

A BADLY weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scrambling to keep his job after Israeli elections resulted in an unexpected deadlock.

The rightwinger is extending his hand to a new centrist party advocating a more earnest push for peace with Palestine.

With 99.5 per cent of the vote counted on Wednesday, the deadlocked election results defied forecasts Israel's next government would veer sharply to the right.

Israeli media said each bloc had 60 of parliament's 120 seats. Commentators said Netanyahu, who called early elections three months ago expecting easy victory, would be tapped to form the next government because the rival camp drew 12 of its 60 seats from Arab parties traditionally excluded from coalition building.

A surprising strong showing by a political newcomer, the centrist Yesh Atid party, dealt a setback to Netanyahu.

Yesh Atid's leader, Yair Lapid, has said he would only join a government committed to sweeping economic changes and a serious push to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, which have languished throughout Netanyahu's four-year tenure.

The results were not official, and the final bloc breakdowns could shift before the election committee finishes its tally early on Thursday.

With the blocs so evenly divided, there remains a remote possibility Netanyahu would not form the next government, even though both he and Lapid have called for the creation of a broad coalition.

Under Israel's parliamentary system, voters cast ballots for parties, not individual candidates. Because no party throughout Israel's 64-year history has ever won an outright majority of parliamentary seats, the country has always been governed by coalitions.

Traditionally, the party that wins the largest number of seats is given the first chance to form a governing alliance in negotiations centring on promising cabinet posts and policy concessions.

If those negotiations are successful, the leader of that party becomes prime minister. If not, the task falls to a smaller faction.

President Shimon Peres has until mid-February to set that process in motion, though he could begin earlier.

Netanyahu's Likud-Yisrael Beitenu alliance polled strongest in Tuesday's election, winning 31 parliamentary seats. But that is 11 fewer than the 42 it held in the outgoing parliament and below the forecasts of 32 to 37 in recent polls.

Yesh Atid had been projected to capture about a dozen seats but won 19, making it the second largest in the legislature.

Addressing his supporters early on Wednesday, when an earlier vote count gave his bloc a shaky, one-seat parliamentary margin, Netanyahu vowed to form as broad a coalition as possible.

He said the next government would be built on principles including reforming the contentious system of granting military draft exemptions to ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and the "responsible" pursuit of a "genuine peace" with the Palestinians. He did not elaborate, but the message seemed aimed at Lapid.

Netanyahu called Lapid early on Wednesday and offered to work together.

"We have the opportunity to do great things together," Likud quoted the prime minister as saying.

Lapid also called for the formation of a broad government.

The election results surprised Israelis, given the steady stream of recent opinion polls forecasting a solid hard-line majority and a weaker showing by centrists.

Lapid said the election outcome reflected a longing for unity in a country beset by schisms.

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Tanks and planes pound Damascus region

SYRIAN warplanes and tanks have shelled rebel strongholds in the province of Damascus, a watchdog said, as a pro-regime daily reported clashes in a camp housing Palestinian refugees.

Fighter jets launched strikes on the town of Douma, northeast of Damascus, on Tuesday and overflew parts of Eastern Ghuta region, home to some of the rebel Free Syrian Army's fiercest and best-organised groups, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The army, as part of its campaign to suppress the insurgency near Damascus once and for all, used tanks to pound the towns of Daraya and Moadamiyat al-Sham, southwest of the capital, and Yalda and Beit Sahem, just to the city's south.

Meanwhile, a pro-regime newspaper made a rare, open admission of the air force's use of strikes in Damascus province.

"The Syrian army has continued to chase armed men from their lairs, in battles using all kinds of weapons, including artillery and air power," said Al-Watan.

It also reported that tension prevailed in the Yarmuk camp housing Palestinian refugees in the capital.

"The situation in the Yarmuk camp, where armed men have flocked, is still tense, and clashes between Palestinian (pro-regime) popular committees and armed groups have continued," Al-Watan reported, citing fleeing residents.

There was "an acute bread shortage, as bakeries have come to a standstill" in the camp.

Yarmuk witnessed fierce clashes in December when warplanes staged two air strikes on the densely populated camp, leading thousands of people to flee.

Despite bids to demilitarise the area, clashes pitting rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad against the army and pro-regime Palestinian militia have been reported.

Elsewhere, at least 56 fighters were killed in six days of fighting in the majority Kurdish city of Ras al-Ain, on the Turkish border, said the Observatory which uses a network of doctors, medics and lawyers on the ground for its reporting.

Tuesday's violence came a day after at least 178 people were killed in violence across Syria, including 31 pro-regime militiamen who died in a suicide attack in the town of Salamiyeh, in the central province of Hama, the Britain-based watchdog said.

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Australia urged to support disabled people

AUSTRALIA is not doing enough to support its disabled citizens who remain invisible members of the community, the nation's greatest ever Paralympian says.

Kurt Fearnley believes a change of public perception, as well as greater support through policies such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme, are necessary to fix the country's "broken" system.

Delivering the 2013 Australia Day address on Tuesday evening, Mr Fearnley cited "damning" statistics that illustrate how tough it is be disabled in Australia.

"If you have a disability in our country, you're more likely to be unemployed, more likely to be living in poverty and more likely to be less educated than if you didn't have that disability," Mr Fearnley told a 200-strong audience in Sydney.

He said Australia compared poorly to other rich nations within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"In Australia, 45 per cent of people with a disability live in, or near poverty, more than double the OECD average of 22 per cent," he said.

"We rank 21st out of 29 OECD countries in employment participation rates for those with a disability.

"We rank 27th out of 27 in terms of the correlation between disability and poverty.

"Our system is broken, it isn't doing enough."

Mr Fearnley, who has won wheelchair racing medals at the past four Paralympics, said the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme would go some way to addressing the disparity.

He said politicians should stop arguing about how to fund the scheme and instead concentrate on making it work.

"Pride in a socially just country has no price tag and it needs to happen.

"The introduction of the NDIS won't be an instant success and fix all wrongs, but it will help."

Mr Fearnley said government support through funds and schemes was essential, but would only succeed if accompanied by greater public awareness of the disabled community.

"The large roll-on comes through the education of the business world and general public.

"We're marginalised by our invisibility... too easily overlooked and ignored.

"Without empathy and support from within my community I would have never found my way to the life I get to live now."

Having just returned from his fourth Paralympics, Mr Fearnley said the London Games were "the best Paralympics I've participated in" because of "the level of public and corporate recognition" that the athletes received.

However, he said the Sydney Games in 2000 also changed Paralympic sport for the better, because they "were less about participation and more about competitive excellence".

"The Sydney Games made every paralympian feel like a respected athlete.

"London made us feel like superstars."

However, he was in no doubt as to what represented the toughest challenge of his life.

He said the 11 gruelling days he spent crawling through the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea in 2009 gave him a greater understanding of the sacrifices made by Australian troops, and instilled a greater sense of national pride.

"The choices that were made by our soldiers during the Kokoda campaign taught me more about who we are as Australians than a dozen years racing for my country."

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UK public debt sparks AAA-rating concerns

BRITISH state borrowing jumped in December, official data shows, stoking renewed speculation over the country's top-level AAA credit rating.

Public sector net borrowing - the government's preferred measure of the budget deficit - climbed to STG15.4 billion ($A23.33 billion) in December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement on Tuesday.

That was worse than market expectations for public borrowing of STG15.2 billion in December, according to analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires, and compared with borrowing of STG14.8 billion in December 2011.

The data excludes the temporary effects of financial interventions such as bank bailouts.

The ONS added that borrowing rose last month as public expenditure outstripped taxation receipts -- despite British finance minister George Osborne's ongoing austerity measures.

Total expenditure grew by 5.4 per cent but tax receipts climbed by just 3.6 per cent in December.

"The December public finance data will do little to deter high and mounting expectations that at least one of the credit ratings agencies will strip the UK of its AAA rating within the next few months," said IHG Global Insight economist Howard Archer.

"Indeed, all three of the major credit rating agencies now have the UK's AAA rating on negative outlook."

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Fat people at bigger risk in car crashes

OBESE people face a much higher risk of dying in a car crash than people of normal weight, researchers report.

The cause could be that safety in cars is engineered for people of normal weight, not for the obese, they said.

Transport safety scientists Thomas Rice of the University of California at Berkeley and Motao Zhu of the University of West Virginia delved into a US databank on road accidents, the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).

They dug out data from 1996 to 2008, covering more than 57,000 collisions that involved two cars. This was whittled down to cases in which both parties involved in the collision had been driving vehicles of similar size and types.

The team then compared the risk of fatality against the victim's estimated body mass index (BMI).

The researchers found an increase in risk of 19 per cent for underweight drivers compared with counterparts of normal weight.

For those who were overweight, the increased risk was 21 per cent. The risk increased to 51 per cent for significantly overweight people and to 80 per cent for extremely overweight people.

Obese women were at greater risk than obese men.

The estimates were made after potentially confounding factors -- age and alcohol use, for instance -- were taken into account.

Further work is needed to explain the big differences, but the researchers noted that obese people suffer different injuries from normal-weight individuals in car accidents.

Data from intensive-care units say that obese patients tend to have more chest injuries and fewer head injuries, are likelier to have more complications, require longer hospital stays, and are likelier to die of their injuries.

Another question is whether obese people use their seat belt correctly, rather than leave it unbuckled or partially fastened because it is uncomfortable, and whether safety designs in cars are flawed.

Crash tests, conducted with cadavers, found that in a frontal collision, people of normal weight lurched forward slightly before the seat belt engaged the pelvis bone to prevent further movement, says the study.

But obese cadavers moved substantially forward from the seat, especially in the lower body. This was because abdominal fat acted as a spongy padding, slowing the time it took for the belt to tighten across the lap.

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Five seriously hurt in Austria train crash

TWO packed commuter trains have collided head-on in the morning rush-hour traffic in Vienna, leaving five people seriously hurt.

"At the moment there are five people seriously injured and several people with light injuries," emergency services spokeswoman Claudia Gigler told AFP on Monday.

The Austrian automobile association said one person was trapped inside the wreckage.

Many passengers were suffering from shock.

Gigler said the cause of the crash was not known.

Austrian Railways spokeswoman Sarah Nettel said that the crash occurred at 8.45am (1845 AEDT) in the Penzing district of western Vienna.

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US ship ignored reef warnings: Philippines

A PHILIPPINES official has accused a US Navy minesweeper of ignoring warnings to stay away before it became stuck on a World Heritage-listed coral reef.

The accusation on Monday by the superintendent of Tubbataha marine park, Angelique Songco, added to growing anger in the Philippines over the incident.

The US Navy has apologised but may still face fines.

Park rangers radioed the USS Guardian to say it was nearing the Tubbataha Reef on Thursday, but the captain insisted they raise their complaint with the US embassy, Songco told reporters.

She said shortly after the warning, the 68-metre vessel became stuck on part of Tubbataha Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Sulu Sea about 130 kilometres southeast of the western island of Palawan.

The site is protected by Philippine law, and is off limits to navigation, except for research or tourism approved by Songco's office.

Songco said it was too early to assess the damage to the coral.

The vessel was still stuck on the reef and being battered by big waves.

The commander of the US Navy's 7th Fleet, Vice Admiral Scott Swift, apologised in a statement from Japan on Sunday.

"As a protector of the sea and a sailor myself, I greatly regret any damage to this incident has caused to the Tubbataha Reef," Swift said.

He acknowledged that protecting the reef was vital, and that the navy took its obligations to preserve marine environment seriously.

He said the crew members had left the vessel, and there were no traces of any oil leaks.

The Philippine Navy said three of its ships had been put on standby near the area to assist in efforts to remove the Guardian from the reef. Two civilian tugboats had been contracted by the Americans.

The Guardian had been en route to Indonesia after visiting a Philippine port north of Manila when the incident occurred, according to the US Navy.

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NATO joins fight against Taliban squad

NATO troops have helped liberate a Kabul police building from a Taliban suicide squad.

Three police officers died in the attack, which lasted eight hours on Monday.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the longest stand-off between the insurgents and security forces in Kabul since a major co-ordinated raid on the capital lasted 18 hours in April 2012.

Three of the five attackers were killed in the early part of the assault while two others wearing suicide vests holed up in the five-storey police building in west Kabul fired on security forces, a police officer told AFP.

They were later also killed.

"It's over. The last two terrorists are dead and they were not even given the chance to detonate their suicide vests," Kabul police chief General Mohammad Ayoub Salangi told AFP.

The reason it took so long to overpower the last two men was "because our boys acted very carefully," he said. "There were lots of important documents so we acted very carefully to not cause any damage to those documents."

Four traffic police, two members of the special forces and half a dozen civilians were wounded, deputy interior minister General Abdul Rahman said.

An AFP photographer said Norwegian soldiers were seen firing at the police building.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed its participation in the operation but insisted it was small.

"We do have a very small number of people assisting the Afghan security forces officials at the scene. It's primarily an advising role and absolutely the Afghan officials are in the lead," an ISAF spokesman told AFP.

NATO says the Taliban insurgency has been weakened and characterised the attack as a ploy to attract media attention, but the time it took to mop up the insurgents will be seen as an embarrassment.

"They (the Taliban) are losing the fight," said General Gunter Katz, ISAF military spokesman.

"They cannot fight face to face. These attacks are only to attract media. They carry out their attacks in the cities and crowded areas where civilians suffer."

He praised the role of the Afghan security forces in countering the attack.

The assault began with a massive car-bomb explosion that shattered the windows of nearby homes.

A local resident described the initial explosion as "very very big - it was massive". It was followed by several other explosions and gunfire.

Taliban insurgents, who are waging an 11-year war against the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, claimed credit for the attack, which it said began at 5:00 am (2330 AEDT Sunday).

"A large number of fedayeen (suicide bombers) entered a building in Dehmazang and are attacking an American training centre, a police centre and other military centres and have caused heavy casualties on the enemy," a Taliban spokesman said.

There is no US or NATO-run training facility in the area and the Taliban are known to exaggerate when claiming attacks.

Monday's attack came less than a week after a squad of suicide bombers attacked the Afghan intelligence agency headquarters in Kabul, killing at least one guard and wounding dozens of civilians.

All six attackers were killed in the brazen attack on the National Directorate of Security (NDS), also claimed by the Taliban.

Afghan police and other security forces are increasingly targets of Taliban attacks as they take a bigger role in the battle against the insurgents before NATO withdraws the bulk of its 100,000 combat troops by the end of 2014.

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Indian fast-track gang-rape trial starts

India's Supreme Court has agreed to consider a plea to transfer a gang-rape trial outside New Delhi. Source: AAP

THE trial of five Indian men accused of raping and murdering a 23-year-old student has started in a fast-track court for crimes against women.

A sixth suspect in the attack claims to be a juvenile and his case is being handled separately.

The court will hear arguments on Monday from defence lawyers appealing for the case, currently being held in a closed court, to be opened to the public, officials said.

"There is an immense interest in the public in this case, let it be all out in the open court," one of the defence lawyers, A.P. Singh, said.

Police say the victim and a male friend were heading home from an evening movie on December 16 when they boarded a bus, where they were attacked by the six assailants. The attackers beat the man and raped the woman, causing her massive internal injuries with a metal bar, police said.

The victims were eventually dumped on the roadside, and the woman died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

Lawyers for the accused say police mistreated their clients and beat them to force them to confess. One lawyer said he would ask the Supreme Court to move the trial out of New Delhi.

The attack has sparked demands for wholesale changes in the way India deals with crimes against women.

Many families pressure relatives who have been assaulted not to press charges, police often refuse to file cases for those who do and courts rarely deliver swift justice in the few cases that do get filed.

Indian courts had a backlog of 33 million cases as of 2011. In a small sign of the sluggish pace of justice, only one of the 635 rape cases filed in the capital last year has ended in a conviction so far.

Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said many other cases were pending and it was not realistic to expect crimes committed late last year to have wound their way through the system yet.

New Delhi set up five fast-track courts in recent weeks to deal specifically with sexual assault cases.

The courts were an important step for clearing some of the 95,000 rape cases pending in India, said Ranjana Kumari, a women's activist and director of the Centre for Social Research, a New Delhi based think tank.

"We need a system in which women can get justice quickly. Otherwise, in the normal course of things, it can take 10 or 12 or 14 years for cases to be taken up by the court. That is tantamount to denying justice to the victim," she said.

Others, however, worried that fast-track courts sacrifice justice for speed, overlooking evidence, limiting the cross-examination of witnesses and racing through hearings.

Vrinda Grover, a senior lawyer in the Delhi High Court and a women's rights activist, said the traditional court system needs to be overhauled - not abandoned - to give proper justice to rape victims.

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Dotcom re-enacts raid for launch party

A HELICOPTER fly-by, men dressed as armed New Zealand police officers, and dancers and singers have all heralded the launch of Kim Dotcom's new "legal" website, Mega.

The new cloud storage website went live at 6.48am on Sunday, about the same time as the dramatic police raid on his Coatesville mansion got underway a year ago. He and three others were arrested on that occasion.

To celebrate the new website's launch, Dotcom hosted about 200 invited guests and media at a party and press conference at the mansion, north of Auckland.

Dotcom, speaking from a stage constructed on the forecourt of his home, told the crowd more than one million people had visited Mega within 14 hours of the site's launch and about 500,000 people had registered as users.

"The launch of Mega is not about mocking any government of Hollywood, it is about our right to innovate and start a new business," he said.

"What we are offering is a smarter, faster and more secure way of cloud storage and we are fully assured by our legal team that we are in compliance with the law."

The press conference, which was also streamed online, included a reenactment of the police raid, with men repelling down the sides of the house and a helicopter, with FBI emblazoned on the side, flying over the crowd.

Dotcom paid tribute to the support he's received from Kiwis in the year since his arrest on copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering charges related to the file-sharing site Megaupload.

"During the past year we had great support from New Zealanders; you have reached out to us and your voices have empowered us," he said.

Dotcom and his co-accused are still awaiting a court hearing to determine whether they will be extradited to the United States.

The extradition hearing, which has been delayed several times, is expected to take four weeks and is set down for August.

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Vic residents return to bushfire-hit homes

Victorian residents have returned to their bushfire-ravaged homes as fire crews backburn. Source: AAP

RESIDENTS have returned to their bushfire-damaged homes in Victoria's east, as authorities battle to bring a massive blaze under control before more predicted hot weather.

Firefighters took advantage of Sunday's cooler weather to strategically backburn amid fears towns could again be threatened on Thursday.

The massive 56,000-hectare blaze has already killed one man who was found in a burnt-out car and destroyed at least 21 homes since it began in the Baw Baw National Park last Thursday.

There are fears the fire may have been deliberately lit.

Residents in Seaton, Glenmaggie and Glenmaggie Point have returned home.

Glenmaggie resident Peter Monds, a CFA member, was manning phones at a control centre when his home was destroyed.

Inside his uninsured home were many photos and memories.

"There's no good crying about it," he told the Nine Network.

"It's gone, it's gone."

Authorities say 21 houses, 35 sheds and 11 vehicles have been lost in the fire and the fire could go for two weeks.

The fire was threatening the small hamlet of Licola, but it has been held about 15km from the town.

Firefighters began a 180 hectare backburn about 10am (AEDT) on Sunday.

Incident Controller Michael Masters said the CFA and DSE were doing a joint backburn due to the likelihood of a very high fire weather day predicted for Thursday.

"The risk of high temperatures and a north westerly wind poses a very significant risk to the Aberfeldy-Donnely bushfire breaking containment lines if we don't backburn today," he said in a statement.

Mr Masters said the 180 hectare backburn would reduce fuel loads in an unburnt area 5km south of Glenmaggie and 6km northwest of Heyfield.

Fire crews are also working on the eastern perimeter in the Coongulla state forest north east of Glenmaggie to strengthen containment lines.

Police are appealing for people to come forward if they witnessed anything suspicious in the hours before the blaze started at Aberfeldy in Gippsland about 11.30am on Thursday.

They particularly want to speak to anyone who was camping in the Donnelly Creek Road area on Thursday morning or local residents.

Smoke from the bushfires reached Melbourne on Sunday and could be smelt in the CBD air.

Authorities have urged the public to ensure there is actually a bushfire in their area before reporting it to Triple-0.

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Missing sought after deadly end to Algeria

GOVERNMENTS are scrambling to track down missing nationals after the bloody end to a gas plant siege in the Sahara that saw Islamists kill at least 23 foreigners and Algerians, with Algiers fearing the toll may rise.

"I fear that it may be revised upward," Communications Minister Mohamed Said told public Channel 3 radio of the number of dead a day after special forces stormed the remote facility to end a crisis that saw seven foreigners killed by their captors in the final moments.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement on Sunday he had spoken to his Algerian counterpart Abdelmalek Sellal, "and it is now clear that this appalling terrorist incident in Algeria is now over.

"Tragically, we now know that three British nationals have been killed, and a further three are believed to be dead. And also a further British resident is also believed to be dead."

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday a Colombian man who lived in London with his family had been killed. He was named as BP employee Carlos Estrada.

Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp said 10 of its Japanese and seven of its foreign workers remained unaccounted for.

JGC confirmed the safety of 61 of its 78 workers at the In Amenas facility stormed at dawn on Wednesday by militants from "Signatories in Blood," a group demanding an end to French military intervention in Mali.

"But the safety of the remaining 10 Japanese and seven foreign workers is yet to be confirmed," a JGC spokesman said in Tokyo.

Kuala Lumpur said JGC had told it one of two Malaysians still unaccounted for is dead whilst the fate of the other was unknown.

Norway's Statoil, which operates the gas plant alongside Britain's BP and Sonatrach of Algeria, said the situation remains "unresolved" for five Statoil employees.

"We will, and we must, keep hoping for more positive news from Algeria. However, we must be prepared to deal with bad news in the next few days," Statoil CEO Helge Lund said.

Thirty-two kidnappers were also killed in the 72-hour stand-off, and the army freed "685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners", Algeria's interior ministry said on Saturday.

Among the dead were an unknown number of foreigners.

Relatives of Kenneth Whiteside, 59, from Glenrothes in Scotland, were "devastated" after hearing an Algerian co-worker claimed to have seen him being shot but dying bravely with a smile, Britain's Mail on Sunday reported.

The mother of survivor Stephen McFaul, 36, from Belfast, told the Sunday Mirror her son will "have nightmares for the rest of his life after the things he saw".

Forced to wear explosives, he fled when the hostage-takers' convoy he was in came under fire on Thursday.

In Saturday's final assault, "the Algerian army took out 11 terrorists, and the terrorist group killed seven foreign hostages", state television said without giving a breakdown.

A security official told AFP it was believed the foreigners were executed "in retaliation".

The militants, whose leader is Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a former Al-Qaeda commander, first killed a Briton and an Algerian on a bus on Wednesday before taking hundreds of workers hostage when they overran the gas plant.

Most of the hostages were freed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched a first rescue operation which was widely condemned as hasty.

But US President Barack Obama and his French counterpart Francois Hollande said responsibility for the deaths lay with the "terrorists".

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French yachtsman rescued in Southern ocean

THE Antarctic cruise ship The Orion has rescued solo round-the-world yachtsman Alain Delord who has been stranded on a life raft in remote waters southwest of Tasmania since Friday.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority confirmed that Delord, 63, has been picked up by the ship.

Delord, who set off at the beginning of October, abandoned his yacht Tchouk Tchouk Nougaton after it lost its mast and its hull was damaged in rough weather.

The location, about 500 nautical miles southwest of Hobart, was too distant for a helicopter rescue with MSA using three aircraft to maintain contact with the sailor until a vessel can reach him.

The Orion, with 100 passengers and 80 crew on board, was returning from Antarctica and heading for the world heritage-listed Macquarie Island when it responded to the call for help.

Delord had received an air drop of food, water, communications equipment and a survival suit while he waited for his rescue.

The captain of the Orion Mike Taylor reported that Delord was recovered safely and without injury.

He is currently receiving medical attention and early indications are he is healthy.

Weather conditions were better than expected and there was plenty of light in the area that enabled the rescue to go ahead.

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