Russia's oil output hits post-Soviet high

WORLD energy power Russia says its 2012 oil output hit a post-Soviet record high while natural gas production declined amid stalling European sales.

The energy ministry's reporting unit said on Wednesday oil and gas condensate production grew by 1.3 per cent last year to reach 518.0 million tonnes or 10.4 million barrels per day.

Russia had established its previous post-Soviet high in 2011 when output stood at 10.28 million barrels per day.

Its current rate outpaces that of Saudi Arabia and clinches for Russia the title of the world's biggest oil producer.

But Russia lacks the quick ability of Saudi Arabia to boost output in case of a global economic rebound or more serious turmoil in the Middle East.

The state-owned oil firm Rosneft accounted for 22.8 per cent of Russia's oil market - its share this year expected to reach more than 40 per cent following its October acquisition of the Anglo-Russian venture TNK-BP.

But Russia's natural gas production fell by 2.3 per cent to 655.0 billion cubic metres as its European sales shrivelled up.

Production of the state natural gas giant Gazprom was reported at 478.8 billion cubic metres - well off its 2011 figure of 513.1 billion cubic metres.

The drop reflects the reality that almost all of Gazprom's foreign sales are focused on European and post-Soviet countries which are now experiencing some of the slowest growth rates in the world.

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Goldfinger scene is Bond favourite: poll

A sucessful Goldfinger would have brought Bond's fame, and philandering, to an end. Source: Supplied

IN a scene voted the all-time favourite by James Bond fans, 007 is strapped to a table, a laser beam creeping towards his crotch. He asks his adversary: "Do you expect me to talk?"

Goldfinger exclaims: "No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die."

A poll of 2500 people in the homeland of Her Majesty's Secret Service asked fans to name the best scene in a 007 film, with the sequence from 1964's Goldfinger emerging a clear winner with 10.3 per cent of votes.

On hearing the result, current Bond Daniel Craig acknowledged the scene "would take some beating".

The survey was conducted by Sky Movies HD at the end of 2012, a year which celebrated half a century of Bond films.

Naked, golden dead woman is perhaps as famous as the winning scene, but not so popular.

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US sperm donor fights child support bid

A SPERM donor in Kansas is fighting a state effort to force him to pay child support for a child conceived through artificial insemination by a lesbian couple.

William Marotta, 46, told The Topeka Capital-Journal he's "a little scared about where this is going to go, primarily for financial reasons".

When he donated sperm to Angela Bauer and Jennifer Schreiner in 2009, Marotta relinquished all parental rights, including financial responsibility.

When Bauer and Schreiner filed for state assistance this year, the state demanded the donor's name so it could collect child support for the now three-year-old girl.

The state contends the agreement between Marotta and the women is not valid because Kansas law requires a doctor to perform artificial insemination.

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Angola stampede kills 10

TEN people, including four children, have died in a stampede during a religious gathering at a sports stadium in Luanda, the Angolan capital.

Angop, the Angolan news agency, cited officials as saying on Tuesday 120 people were also injured.

The incident happened on New Year's Eve when tens of thousands of people gathered at the stadium and panic ensued.

Faustino Sebastiao, spokesman for the national firefighters department, says those who died were crushed and asphyxiated.

The event in the southern African nation was organised by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, an evangelical group founded in Brazil.

In western Africa, a crowd in Ivory Coast stampeded after leaving a New Year's fireworks show early on Tuesday, killing 61 people and injuring more than 200.

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Iran warning to foreign jets, ships

IRAN'S navy has issued dozens of warnings to foreign planes and warships that approached its forces during a five-day sea manoeuvre near the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Admiral Amir Rastgari said naval and air defence forces on 30 occasions hade warned off reconnaissance planes, drones and warships belonging to "extraregional forces" that approached the drill, using a term that the Islamic Republic commonly employs to refer to the militaries of the US and its allies.

The five-day naval drill, dubbed Velayat-91, is Iran's latest show of strength in the face of mounting pressures over its disputed nuclear program. The West suspects it may be aimed at producing nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.

Iran has threatened to close the strait over Western sanctions but has not repeated the threats lately. The strait is the passageway for one-fifth of the world's oil supply.

Rastgari said the aircraft and warships heeded the warnings and stayed away.

"Various reconnaissance aircraft that sought to penetrate into the drill area were given warnings by the navy and the Khatam-ol-Anbia (air defence force)," he said.

"Subsequently, the intelligence planes and drones distanced from the area after receiving the warnings."

Iran has used the manoeuvres to highlight its newly developed weapons systems.

State TV said Ghader (Capable), a sea-launched anti-ship missile with a range of 200 kilometress, was among the weapons used in the final day of navy drills on Tuesday.

The Ghader missile was delivered in late 2011 to the Iranian military and the powerful Revolutionary Guard's naval division, which is assigned to protect Iran's sea borders. Iranian officials say the missile can skim the sea to avoid detection and can sink large warships.

Iran's growing arsenal includes short- and medium-range ballistic missiles that are capable of hitting targets in the region such as Israel and US military bases in the Gulf.

The Iranian government began a military self-sufficiency program in 1992 under which it produces a large range of weapons including tanks, missiles, jet fighters, unmanned drone aircraft and torpedoes.

The manoeuvres cover nearly one million square kilometres from the Strait of Hormuz to the northern part of the Indian Ocean, including the Sea of Oman.

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Charity workers shot dead in Pakistan

SIX women and a man working for a charity have been shot dead in a drive-by shooting after they left a community centre in northwest Pakistan.

All the victims were Pakistani citizens and the incident happened on Tuesday in the Swabi area, close to a junction for the motorway which connects the northwestern city of Peshawar to the capital Islamabad and the eastern city of Lahore.

Swabi district police chief Abdul Rashid Khan confirmed seven deaths.

"They were on their way back home when unknown gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on their vehicle," he told AFP.

"Six women and a man have died. The driver is injured. We are investigating the motives of the attack."

At least five of the women were teachers.

Police said the victims worked for a local charity involved with health and education, and they were attached to a community centre in a Swabi village.

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Aleppo airport closed due to rebel attacks

THE international airport in Syria's second city of Aleppo has been temporarily closed due to repeated attacks by rebel fighters.

"There have been continued attempts by opposition militants to target civilian aircraft, which could cause a humanitarian disaster," an airport official told AFP on Tuesday.

The official said the critical transportation hub would be closed for a "very short period of time" while the army worked to regain control of surrounding areas where large numbers of rebels have set up base.

Fighting in Aleppo, located in the largely rebel-held north of Syria, has been at a stalemate for months since opposition fighters launched a massive assault on the former commercial hub in mid-July.

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Ivory Coast NYE stampede kills 60

AT least 60 people have died and dozens have been injured in Abidjan as crowds stampeded during celebratory New Year's fireworks, Ivory Coast rescue workers say.

The head of military rescue workers, Lieutenant Colonel Issa Sako, told public television on Tuesday that "60 people" died and 200 were injured based on a preliminary toll.

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Asian markets weighed by US fiscal cliff

ASIAN markets fell in New Year's Eve-shortened trade as hopes that US lawmakers will reach a deal to avert the fiscal cliff faded just a day before a deadline.

However on Monday there was some bright news out of China, where a survey by HSBC showed manufacturing activity hit a 19-month high in December.

Hong Kong closed flat, edging down 9.67 points to 22,656.92, but it closed out the year 22.91 per cent higher.

Sydney closed 0.48 per cent lower, shedding 22.4 points to 4,648.9, although the index is up 14.60 per cent over the past 12 months.

Wellington was 0.35 per cent lower, shedding 14.39 points to 4,066.51, but adding 24.51 per cent for 2012.

In the afternoon Shanghai surged 1.12 per cent.

Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila were all closed for public holidays.

Despite the losses on Monday all the region's stock markets ended the year higher, with Bangkok the standout performer, surging almost 36 per cent, while Shanghai was the weakest, adding less than three per cent over the 12 months.

Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill ended Sunday without reaching a compromise over a deficit-cutting budget that would be less painful than the deep spending cuts and tax hikes due to take effect on Tuesday.

Leaders remained locked in talks that appeared to be making little headway, with each side blaming the other as analysts warned the measures could tip the economy into recession.

Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned that, despite through-the-night talks, negotiators were still a long way from success, with Democrats not responding to a "good faith offer" from his party.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed talks were at a standstill, adding: "There is still significant distance between the two sides, but negotiations continue."

If talks fail on Monday President Barack Obama has demanded a vote on his fallback plan that would preserve lower tax rates for families on less than $250,000 a year and extend unemployment insurance for two million people.

But Stan Shamu, a market strategist at IG in Sydney, said he expected some sort of plan to come out.

"No one knows how this will play out, but the most likely scenario is a patch-up deal to avoid a fiscal catastrophe in the New Year," he told Dow Jones Newswires.

On currency markets the euro rose to $US1.3207 from $US1.3217 in late US trade Friday, but the US dollar rose to 86.06 yen from 85.98 yen. The Japanese unit continued to be weighed by expectations the country's central bank will unveil fresh monetary easing measures next month.

The euro bought 113.67 yen from 113.62 yen.

News out of Beijing was better, however, with banking giant HSBC saying its final purchasing managers' index (PMI) of the year hit 51.5, up from 50.5 in November and a fourth straight month of improvement.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the key sector, while one below signals shrinkage.

The figures reinforce recent indications that the world's second-largest economy is finally emerging from its slumber.

"Such a momentum is likely to be sustained in the coming months when infrastructure construction runs into full speed and property market conditions stabilise," Qu Hongbin, HSBC's chief economist for China, said in the release.

On oil markets New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, shed 28 cents to $US90.85 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for February slipped one cent to $US110.61.

Gold was at $US1,660.60 at 0445 GMT compared with $US1,658.90 late Friday.

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Over it - banish the term fiscal cliff

SPOILER alert: This story contains words and phrases that some people want to ban from the English language. 'Spoiler alert' is among them. So are 'kick the can down the road,' 'trending' and 'bucket list'.

A dirty dozen have landed on the 38th annual List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.

The nonbinding, tongue-in-cheek decree released on Monday by northern Michigan's Lake Superior State University is based on nominations submitted from the United States, Canada and beyond.

Spoiler alert, the seemingly thoughtful way to warn readers or viewers about looming references to a key plot point in a film or TV show, nevertheless passed its use-by date for many, including Joseph Foly, of Fremont, California.

He argued in his submission the phrase is "used as an obnoxious way to show one has trivial information and is about to use it, no matter what."

The phrase receiving the most nominations this year is 'fiscal cliff', banished because of its overuse by media outlets when describing across-the-board federal tax increases and spending cuts that economists say could harm the economy in the new year without congressional action.

University spokesman Tom Pink said that in nearly four decades, the Sault Ste. Marie school has "banished" around 900 words or phrases, and somehow the whole idea has survived rapidly advancing technology and diminishing attention spans.

Nominations used to come by mail, then fax and website, he said, and now most come through the university's Facebook page. That's fitting, since social media has helped accelerate the life cycle of certain words and phrases, such as this year's entry 'YOLO' - "you only live once."

"The list surprises me in one way or another every year, and the same way every year: I'm always surprised how people still like it, love it," he said.

As usual, the etymological exercise - or exorcise - only goes so far. Past lists haven't eradicated 'viral,' 'amazing,' 'LOL' or 'man cave' from everyday use.

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