France drops terror charges against rocker

French prosecutors have dropped terror charges against Norwegian neo-Nazi musician Varg Vikernes. Source: AAP

FRENCH prosecutors say they have dropped terror charges against a Norwegian musician and freed him from custody, but still want him to go to court for allegedly inciting racial hatred.

The prosecutor's office said on Friday that Varg Vikernes was freed on Thursday night after three days of questioning by police in the central French city of Brive-la-Gaillarde, near his farmhouse.

His French wife was freed on Wednesday. Her recent purchase of four firearms raised suspicions of French authorities although she had a permit.

Vikernes, a neo-Nazi black metal rocker, gained notoriety in the 1990s after being convicted in Norway of manslaughter in the stabbing death of a fellow band member and for arson attacks on three churches.

Prosecutors say they still want him to answer in court for his alleged anti-Semitic and xenophobic messages.

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Bomb in Iraq Sunni mosque kills 20

A SUICIDE bomber has struck a crowded Sunni mosque north of Baghdad, killing 20 people, police say, as Iraq struggles to contain the worst violence since 2008.

The bomber detonated explosives in the Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Mosque as the imam gave the Friday sermon in the town of Al-Wajihiyah, east of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, a police colonel said.

The attack also wounded 40 people. A doctor confirmed the toll.

Areas near Baquba have been hit by a number of attacks in recent days, including a bombing on Tuesday that targeted worshippers leaving a Sunni mosque in Muqdadiyah, northeast of the city, killing four people and wounding 15.

The latest unrest brings the number of people killed in attacks in July to more than 450, and upwards of 2700 since the beginning of the year.

Iraq has faced years of attacks by militants, but analysts say widespread discontent among members of its Sunni Arab minority, which the Shi'ite-led government has failed to address, has fuelled this year's surge in unrest.

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Thyroid cancer risk for Fukushima workers

AROUND 2000 people who have worked at Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant face a heightened risk of thyroid cancer, its operator says.

Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said on Friday that 1973 people - around 10 per cent of those employed in emergency crews involved in the clean-up since the meltdowns - were believed to have been exposed to enough radiation to cause potential problems.

The figure is a 10-fold increase on TEPCO's previous estimate of the number of possible thyroid cancer victims and comes after the utility was told its figures were too conservative.

Each worker in this group was exposed to at least 100 millisieverts of radiation, projections show.

Although little is known about the exact health effects of radiation on the human body, the level is considered by doctors to be a possible threshold for increased cancer risk.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant became the site of the worst nuclear disaster in a generation after the massive tsunami of March 2011 destroyed its cooling systems.

The plant's reactors went through meltdowns that caused explosions in the buildings housing them, spewing radioactive materials into the air, sea and soil.

Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes in a large area around the plant, where crews continue to clear debris and cool the reactors.

The fragility of the wrecked plant was brought into sharp relief again on Thursday with the discovery of steam in the roofless building around Reactor 3.

TEPCO said on Friday it still did not know exactly where the steam was coming from, although readings showed it was no more radioactive than expected and suggested it could have been accumulated rainwater.

The huge utility, which has faced frequent criticism for downplaying dangers and not being forthcoming about problems at the site, revised its method of estimating the level of radiation exposure among workers earlier this month.

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Iran's Ahmadinejad visits Iraq

IRANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in southern Iraq to visit two of the holiest cities for Shi'ite Muslims amid tight security on the second day of his two-day visit to the country.

The outgoing Iranian president waved to worshippers and smiled on Friday morning as he entered the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, a city 160km south of Baghdad.

Security forces were deployed along the route from Najaf airport to the gold-domed shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shi'ite Islam.

Ahmadinejad's convoy then plans to head to the city of Karbala, home to the shrine of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

This is Ahmadinejad's second visit to Iraq while in office. On Thursday, he met Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other officials.

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Nokia sales fall by 24% in quarter

NOKIA Corp says its net loss narrowed in the second quarter to 227 million euros ($A324.8 million) compared to a net loss of 1.41 billion euros a year earlier.

The struggling Finnish mobile phone maker said sales fell by 24 per cent to 5.7 billion euros from 7.5 billion in the second quarter last year.

Sales of the company's flagship Lumia phones increased by 32 per cent compared to the first quarter to 7.4 million handsets.

The results, however, were weaker than analysts had expected.

The company's share price fell three per cent to 2.99 euros at the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

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Navalny: ambitious crusader against Putin

Russia's protest leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to five years in a prison colony. Source: AAP

RUSSIA'S charismatic protest leader Alexei Navalny, sentenced to five years in a prison colony, has galvanised the opposition with lacerating attacks on President Vladimir Putin and the Russian elite.

Navalny is a new breed of Russian protest leader who wants to become a player in mainstream politics after building up a huge internet following with sharply written blogs and corruption exposes.

He emerged as the key figure in the mass opposition protests that rocked Russia in the winter of 2011-2012 ahead of Putin's return for a third Kremlin term last May.

But his sentence on Thursday in a controversial embezzlement case, which supporters denounced as ordered by the Kremlin to eliminate a dangerous foe, will disqualify him from taking part in politics.

His sometimes volcanic rhetoric inspired supporters in a way never seen before in post-Soviet Russia, provocatively declaring at a rally in December 2011 that he could muster enough protesters to take the Kremlin.

He has boldly stated an ambition to become president in 2018 polls and "change the country" and also registered to run for mayor of Moscow in September elections.

But both ambitions will be in tatters if the verdict is confirmed on appeal.

Twice jailed briefly for administrative offences during the protests, he is no stranger to tough street talk and told a policeman who roughly arrested him last May that he would prosecute him afterwards.

Navalny has vowed that should he win power he will put in prison his enemies, a pledge that has troubled some liberals who fear a cycle of revenge justice.

"I am sure that sooner or later I will have them jailed," he told Moscow Echo radio in an interview ahead of the verdict hearing.

Since Putin's return for a third presidential term, Navalny has toned down his role in mass rallies and has turned his focus on exposing sleaze among top lawmakers in the ruling United Russia party.

Defiant to the last, just days before the verdict he published a detailed report accusing one of Putin's closest confidants, the head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin, of possessing a vast undeclared business and property portfolio.

It was Navalny who dreamt up the infectious slogan calling United Russia "the party of swindlers and thieves", which it has not managed to shake off.

But held back by the lack of coverage on state television, he has yet to make an impact in the regions beyond his Moscow powerbase and many Russians have no clue who he is.

Even in the Russian capital, just eight per cent said they would vote for him in the mayoral elections and just 32 per cent were even aware of his candidacy.

Navalny, 37, began his anti-corruption crusade in 2007, buying up shares in state-controlled companies and grilling management at their annual general meetings.

Realising the power of the internet well before the Russian elite, he published reports alleging corruption and mass embezzlement at giant enterprises on his Rospil website (Rospil.info), which built up a loyal following.

In his last Live Journal blog post before the verdict, he called on Russians to keep up the fight.

"Simply understand this: there's no one else but you," he wrote. "If you are reading this, then you are the resistance."

Navalny makes astute use of the colloquial forms of the Russian language - where plays on words are hugely popular - in a way never dreamt of by any Kremlin official.

Seeking to present himself as an ordinary guy, Navalny lives with his wife Yulia - who has become an increasingly visible presence at his side - in a humdrum and otherwise unremarkable Moscow suburb called Maryino.

"Navalny is someone like you - he is not someone backed by oligarchs and bureaucrats," says his campaign literature for the mayoral elections. "Let's change Russia, starting with Moscow."

Nevertheless, his views on ethnic relations trouble liberals, in particular in such a multi-cultural country like Russia which is home to an estimated 20 million Muslims.

He coined the slogan "it's time to stop feeding" Russia's volatile North Caucasus and has spoken at the ultra-right Russian Marches, behaviour that earlier led to his expulsion from the liberal Yabloko party.

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Pig brain cells to treat Parkinson's

Brain cells from a rare New Zealand pig will be used in a new trial to cure Parkinson's disease. Source: AAP

BRAIN cells from a rare New Zealand pig will be used in an attempt to regrow dying human brain cells in Parkinson's patients.

The world first trial on four New Zealanders with Parkinson's disease will take brain cells from the Auckland Island species of pig and inject them into the human brains.

The cells will be directed towards the damaged parts of the patients' brains.

Parkinson's disease causes tremors, loss of movement and cognitive impairment and occurs when nerve cells in the brain die or are damaged.

Scientists hope a growth factor hormone released by the pig brain cells will cause the dying human cells to grow back and reconnect to existing cells.

The Auckland Island species has been selected for the trial because it is free of viruses usually carried by pigs.

Neurologist Dr Barry Snow says animal studies have shown the "remarkable regrowth" of damaged cells.

The human trial will kick off in September with the first patient, while the other three will be injected at a later date.

There is currently no cure for Parkinson's disease and treatments become ineffective after a few years.

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Kerry visits Syrian refugee camp in Jordan

US Secretary of State John Kerry has visited the sprawling Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees. Source: AAP

US Secretary of State John Kerry has visited the sprawling Zaatari camp home to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees to see at first-hand the tragedy of the conflict.

Kerry first overflew the vast camp by helicopter, surveying hundreds of tents and trailers lined up on the desert sand about 20 kilometres from the Syrian border.

Kerry said his visit had "put a real human face" on the situation, describing his conversations with refugees and officials at the camp as "searing and unforgettable".

He met with half dozen refugees, two men and four women, for 40 minutes.

They expressed anger and repeatedly asked Kerry to establish buffer and no-fly zones in Syria.

"Where is the international community? What are you waiting for? We hope that you will not go back to the United States before you find a solution to the crisis. At least impose a no-fly zone or an embargo," said a refugee woman who did not give her name.

A grim-faced Kerry replied: "A lot of different options are under consideration. I wish it was very simple. As you know, we've been fighting two wars for 12 years.

"We are trying to help in various ways, including helping Syrian opposition fighters have weapons. We are doing new things. There is consideration of buffer zones and other things but it is not as simple as it sounds."

The same woman picked up a pen, waved it in the air and tapped it on the table as she spoke.

"Mr Secretary if the situation remains unchanged until the end of Ramadan this camp will become empty. We will return to Syria and we will fight with knives. You as the US government look to Israel with respect. Cannot you do the same with the children of Syria?" she asked.

The refugees also urged the international community to help put a halt to the flow of weapons from Iran and influx of Lebanese Hezbollah fighters into Syria.

The Red Cross said last week 150,000 Syrian refugees live in Zaatari, a figure backed by Jordanian officials.

Thousands of people flee the fighting across the Jordanian-Syrian border every night and most end up at the camp, built in July 2012.

Nearly 1.8 million people are now registered with the United Nations in countries around Syria and an average of 6000 people a day are fleeing, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said earlier this week.

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Koreas fail to agree on industrial site

NORTH and South Korea have failed again to reach agreement on reopening their jointly-run industrial estate as they wrangled over who was to blame for its shutdown.

A fourth round of talks about the complex ended on Wednesday without agreement, but the two sides will meet again next Monday, said Seoul's chief delegate Kim Ki-Woong.

The Kaesong estate in North Korea, the last remaining symbol of cross-border co-operation, shut down in April as military tensions mounted after the North's February nuclear test and South Korean-US war games.

Dialogue resumed in recent weeks but little progress has been made amid squabbles over which side should take responsibility for the suspension of business there.

Wednesday's discussions appeared to be a repeat of previous rounds, with each side refusing to budge on conditions for resuming operations at the estate, built after a landmark inter-Korean summit in 2000.

The South urged the North to promise not to cause another closure and to take a respectful and constructive position to resolve the issue, according to an official with Seoul's unification ministry.

However, the North reiterated its previous position that operations at the zone should be normalised as soon as possible, the official said.

"There was a big difference" over how to work out a legal framework to prevent a future shutdown, Kim told reporters at the end of Wednesday's talks.

Kaesong was previously a valuable source of hard currency for the impoverished North.

At a meeting earlier this month, the two sides agreed in principle to reopen the estate, where 53,000 North Koreans worked in 123 South-owned factories producing textiles or light industrial goods.

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FBT changes dominate climate debate

Labor minister Mark Butler (C) says legislation will be drafted for the ETS before the election. Source: AAP

LABOR'S crackdown on work-related benefits to help pay for a shift to an emissions trading scheme (ETS) continues to anger the motor industry after the government said it would mainly impact luxury car owners.

Changes to fringe benefit tax (FBT) arrangements on car leasing and salary sacrifice packaging aim to raise $1.8 billion of the $3.8 billion needed for an early shift from a fixed carbon pricing regime to an ETS in 2014.

The move, which will impact about 320,000 people, has angered automotive groups and the opposition, but the government is determined to push through the measure, even if it means recalling parliament.

"In the event that parliament were to resume before the election, I could take draft legislation to the parliament," Climate Change Minister Mark Butler said on Wednesday.

If rejected, Labor would take it to the election and seek a mandate from voters, he added.

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said the surprise change was like taking a baseball bat to an already ailing motor vehicle industry.

"This is poorly thought out, there was no consultation with any stakeholders," he told reporters after meeting with car salesmen in western Sydney.

However, Mr Hockey stopped short of committing the coalition to block the measure, saying "we would not start from yesterday" when asked if he would back the change.

The senior Liberal agreed with car retailers who say they rely on the FBT scheme to keep up sales in an already cut-throat sector.

But Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said people were "fiddling the system" by buying expensive luxury cars and claiming personal travel as a work-related expense.

"The chances are it's not a Holden Commodore, it's a BMW," he said.

Treasurer Chris Bowen tried to soften the blow, adding that people entitled to dispensation would still be able to get it as long as they could justify their claims.

"If you are not using your car for business, then you don't need a business-use deduction," he said.

The savings from the FBT measure form the single biggest plank of Labor's push to an ETS next year, and neutralise lingering voter antipathy toward imposition of the $24 a tonne carbon tax.

Other savings will come from public service job cuts and the scrapping or winding back of some clean energy programs.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the ETS push is in line with a promise he made to Australians in 2007 during his first leadership term, and will save the average Australian household $380 in 2014/15.

But industry says changes to the FBT scheme will hit middle-income earners hardest.

"Motorists ... should not be targeted to help minimise the budget impact of other policy decisions," Australian Automobile Association director Andrew McKellar said.

The Australian Greens, who are critical of cuts to environmental programs, are promising to stall any government legislation related to the earlier ETS move in the upper house.

"We won't be moving to the ETS in 2014," said Greens leader Christine Milne.

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Rudd close to boat policy announcement

THE Rudd government is closer to laying out changes to its strategy on asylum seeker boat arrivals as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott declared Australia was facing a national emergency.

After moving to neutralise the carbon tax as an election issue by "terminating" it on Tuesday, federal Labor now plans to address its biggest policy weakness.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday outlined his three-pronged approach to the vexed policy area covering action at the global, regional and national level.

"That's the correct response to a problem which is not uniquely Australia's - it is a problem right around the world," he told reporters in Gladstone.

The prime minister's comments came as a search and rescue operation began off Christmas Island after an asylum seeker boat carrying 80 people issued a distress call.

It also came a day after four people died when a boat capsized while under the escort of two navy vessels en route to Christmas Island.

The bodies of two men and two women, all thought to be in their 20s and 30s, were recovered from the water and a further 144 people were rescued.

Last weekend a baby boy, who was on a vessel swamped by high seas as it struggled toward the Australian coastline, was drowned.

Mr Rudd indicated Labor was looking at the effectiveness of the United Nations Refugee Convention.

While there's no suggestion Australia will withdraw from the convention, his comments imply the government might push for the 60-year-old agreement to be changed to reflect current movements of displaced people.

This could make it easier for Australia to reject refugee applications for people it deems to be economic migrants and not persons fleeing persecution or war.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr has already expressed concerns there were more economic migrants, particularly from Iran, coming to Australia on boats provided by people smugglers in Indonesia.

Iran currently refuses to accept people who don't want to be returned.

Mr Rudd, who recently visited Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, said on Wednesday he was looking at strengthening co-operation with nations in southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific.

The government was also looking at reforming Australia's domestic refugee determination process.

As part of the process, the foreign affairs department is updating advisory information provided to refugee tribunals and courts on asylum seeker source countries.

The government wants to change a review process that overturns the overwhelming majority of failed asylum seekers.

Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare has also called on all sides of politics to work together to "fix this God-awful problem".

"This is a wretchedly difficult area and it's been poisoned by politics," he said in Sydney.

Mr Abbott said he was more than happy to put partisanship aside and support Labor in making the changes needed to stop the boats.

"Bring back the parliament, let's debate this issue and let's make the changes now to stop the boats," he said in Mackay, Queensland.

"This is a national emergency, it's got to be addressed now."

Australia's border protection commander Rear Admiral David Johnston said his staff had suffered psychologically.

"It is a dreadful feeling in the stomach when we hear that a vessel has capsized or that it's in some difficulty," he told reporters.

Recently retired navy Lieutenant Commander Barry Learoyd, commander of the patrol boat HMAS Albany in the 2009 SIEV-36 incident when an intercepted vessel exploded with the loss of five asylum seekers, said boat turnbacks could be done.

"If the government says yes we are to turn the vessel around, then there would be procedures in place to make sure that happens as safely as we can," he told ABC television.

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European stocks climb at open

EUROPE'S main stock markets rose at the start of trading on Wednesday, with London's benchmark FTSE 100 index up 0.26 per cent to 6,573.30 points.

In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 gained 0.19 per cent to 8,216.70 points and in Paris the CAC 40 advanced 0.21 per cent to 3,859.20 compared with Tuesday's closing values.

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France vows to punish Mali hostage killers

A body found in northern Mali may be that of Philippe Verdon (R) kidnapped by al-Qaeda in 2011. Source: AAP

FRENCH President Francois Hollande says there is a "very strong" chance that a body found in northern Mali is that of a French hostage and vowed the killing would not go unpunished.

Philippe Verdon, who was kidnapped by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) from a hotel while on business in northeastern Mali in November 2011, was already believed to be dead.

His captors announced in March that the 53-year-old had been executed in response to France's military intervention in Mali.

"We found a body 10 days ago in northern Mali, we are doing everything possible to confirm that this could be, alas, the body of Philippe Verdon," Hollande said at Mali's embassy to Paris, where he was awarded the highest rank in the country's National Order on Monday.

"We will then determine the cause of death and nothing will go unpunished," Hollande said.

AQIM is holding hostage eight Europeans, including five French nationals.

French forces intervened in Mali in January to help the weak Malian military drive out Islamist rebels who had seized control of the country's north.

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Thousands protest over Zimmerman verdict

Protests have been held in US cities after a jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of murder. Source: AAP

THOUSANDS have protested in US cities as President Barack Obama appealed for calm following the acquittal in Florida of a man who gunned down an unarmed black teenager.

The angry protests highlight simmering racial tensions after a jury found volunteer watchman George Zimmerman not guilty of murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

Demonstrators held noisy rallies in US cities including New York, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit and Chicago.

At least six people were arrested in Los Angeles early on Monday when riot police broke up an "unlawful assembly" in Hollywood near the CNN building.

To the chants of "No justice, no peace!" a separate crowd blocked traffic on an important freeway elsewhere in the giant metropolis, local media reported.

The most numerous rally on Sunday was in New York City, where several thousand - including families with children - marched to Times Square under the watchful eye of police.

Many in the multi-racial crowd brandished signs bearing a portrait of Martin, while some, despite sweltering July heat, wore "hoodie" sweatshirts as the teen did the night he was killed.

"I am appalled," said Carli VanVoorhis, a 21-year-old hairdresser.

"The man was armed, the kid was not, and the man with the gun got away," she said.

"If we say it was not a racial issue, we would be lying."

"We have a big problem with race, and another problem is guns," said protester Rodney Rodriguez. "If Zimmerman didn't have a gun, he couldn't have killed Trayvon Martin."

The case has pitted those who believe that Zimmerman, a 29-year-old Hispanic neighbourhood watchman, killed Martin in self-defence, and those who believe it was a murder sparked by racist assumptions.

Obama, the first black US president, urged Americans to step back and accept the trial verdict.

"We are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken," he said in a statement.

"I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son."

Zimmerman was accused of pursuing Martin through a gated community in the town of Sanford and shooting him during an altercation on the rainy night of February 26, 2012.

The defence successfully argued that Zimmerman fired his handgun in self-defence after the teen wrestled him to the ground and was slamming his head against the pavement.

According to Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law, people who fear for their lives can use deadly force to defend themselves without having to flee a confrontation.

"We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this," Obama said. "As citizens, that's a job for all of us. That's the way to honour Trayvon Martin."

Obama last year spoke emotionally about the case, noting that if he had a son he would "look like Trayvon."

The racial divide was evident in Sanford pastor Valerie Houston's Sunday sermon.

"Dr (Martin Luther) King (Jr) stated, the daily life of the Negro is still in the basement of the Great Society," she said.

"And today I state, the daily life of my people is still enslaved to a white supremacist society."

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Bangladesh Islamist jailed for 90 years

Wartime head of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party was jailed for 90 years for atrocities in 1971. Source: AAP

A BANGLADESHI court has sentenced an elderly Islamist leader to 90 years in prison for masterminding atrocities during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

Ghulam Azam, compared by prosecutors to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, was found guilty of all five charges of planning, conspiracy, incitement, complicity, and murder and torture during the war, which the government says killed three million people.

However, 90-year-old Azam, the wartime head of the country's largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and now its spiritual leader, was spared the death penalty because of his age and health, and was instead sentenced to nine decades in prison, an official said.

"He was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt in all five charges. The tribunal observed that he deserved death penalty," junior Attorney General M K Rahman said.

"But because of his old age and health complications, he was sentenced separately in the five charges. In all he has been sentenced to 90 years in prison."

Azam remained stoney-faced in his wheelchair as the sentence was read out.

Violence erupted in cities across Bangladesh ahead of the judgment, killing two people, as supporters of Azam clashed with police and paramilitary troops who responded with rubber bullets and in some cases live rounds, officials said.

Jamaat called a nationwide strike on Monday to protest the verdict, saying the war crimes trials are aimed at eliminating its leaders.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Azam, describing him as a "lighthouse" who guided all war criminals, and the "architect" of the militias which committed many of the 1971 atrocities.

When India intervened at the end of the nine-month war and it became clear Pakistan was losing, the militias killed dozens of professors, playwrights, filmmakers, doctors and journalists.

Azam was described as the "mastermind" of the massacres of the intellectuals. Many of their bodies were found a few days after the war at a marsh outside the capital, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs.

Azam is the fifth person convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal. Three Islamists have been sentenced to death and one was given life imprisonment.

Previous verdicts by the tribunal have sparked widespread and deadly violence on the streets of a country that has a 90 per cent Muslim population.

Azam's lawyer Tajul Islam said the charges were based on newspaper reports of speeches Azam gave during the war, which led to the creation of Bangladesh.

"The prosecution has completely failed to prove any of the charges," he told AFP before the verdict.

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Activists break into French nuclear plant

Police arrested Greenpeace activists who broke into the grounds of a nuclear power plant in France. Source: AAP

SAINT-PAUL-TROIS-CHATEAUX , France, July 15, AFP - Police have arrested 29 Greenpeace activists who sneaked into a nuclear plant in southern France, in the latest break-in by the environmental group aimed at highlighting alleged security weaknesses at atomic facilities.

The activists managed to enter the grounds of the Tricastin plant, around 200km north of Marseille, around dawn, Greenpeace and police said.

They hung yellow banners reading "Tricastin: a nuclear accident" and "Francois Hollande: president of a catastrophe?" in reference to the French president, according to Isabelle Philippe, a spokeswoman for the environmental group.

Before entering the facility, the activists also projected images inside the plant, including one showing a crack running along part of the structure.

"Greenpeace wants to point out all the security weaknesses in the production of nuclear energy," she said.

"Tricastin is one of the most dangerous plants and one of five that should be closed quickly.

"It was the easiest thing in the world for the activists to enter the plant, it took them 20 minutes to get from the entrance to the top of the structures."

The interior ministry said all the activists had been detained in a full sweep of the facility. It had taken several hours to arrest them all, after some had chained themselves to structures inside the plant.

Among those arrested were French, Italian, Romanian and Spanish nationals.

The EDF energy giant that runs France's atomic power plants said that the activists did not manage to reach any sensitive areas within the site.

Greenpeace has staged several break-ins at French nuclear plants in recent years in an effort to highlight what they say are dangers of atomic power and to expose security problems at the power stations.

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