UN Rwanda court jails ex-minister

THE UN tribunal for Rwanda has handed a 35-year jail term to a former minister found guilty of genocide, in the court's final trial ruling.

Augustin Ngirabatware, planning minister at the time of the 1994 genocide, was found guilty of genocide, incitement to commit genocide and rape as a crime against humanity.

"For these crimes the court sentences you to 35 years in prison," the judge, William Hussein Sekule, told Ngirabatware on Thursday.

The tribunal still has appeals pending, but will wrap up its activities by the end of 2014.

Ngirabatware is the son-in-law of Felicien Kabuga, accused by the tribunal of having bankrolled the genocide, and the most notorious of the nine people indicted by the tribunal still at large.

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Jobs, growth are govt's priorities: Wong

FINANCE Minister Penny Wong says the government's focus is on jobs and economic growth after Treasurer Wayne Swan revealed a budget surplus is unlikely for 2012/13.

Mr Swan on Thursday said he'd rather ditch the surplus than tighten fiscal policy further and risk local jobs and growth.

"Obviously dramatically lower tax revenue now makes it unlikely that there will be a surplus in 2012/13," he told reporters in Canberra.

Senator Wong said she supported the decision.

"Today we have been very clear about that and we have made this decision to be clear about the state of revenue," she told ABC Television on Thursday.

"We have to put jobs and growth first."

In October, Treasury had forecast a $1.1 billion surplus for 2012/13, a turnaround from a $43.7 billion deficit the previous year.

Senator Wong said the government had downgraded revenue forecasts for this financial year by $20 billion since the 2010 budget projections.

The Finance Department's latest monthly statement released on Thursday showed cash receipts for 2012/13 so far totalled $111.6 billion at the end of October, down almost $4 billion on expectations.

The main factor was company tax revenue, hit by profit declines.

"With the release today of this new data, we have said to the Australian people ... we are seeing further revenue downgrades and it is not responsible to continue to make cuts to offset this revenue downgrade," she said.

The budget bottom line was being hit by a high Australian dollar and its impact on the terms of trade - the prices Australia receives for its exports compared to its imports, Senator Wong said.

"They are certainly having an effect on profitability and therefore our revenue," she said.

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Shooter left little for investigators

A week of intensive investigation has turned up little to shed light on what motivated Adam Lanza to kill.

Details emerge on Adam Lanza's past as Fox News investigate his school and tech club activities.

A 2005 picture of Adam Lanza, who carried out one of the deadliest school shootings in the US. Source: Herald Sun

AFTER a week of intensive investigation following the slaughter of 20 first-graders and six women at a primary school in Newtown, normally promising lines of inquiry have turned up little if anything to shed light on what motivated Adam Lanza, the reclusive, 20-year old gunman, to kill.

A preliminary examination of his mobile phone showed that he had made or received few, if any calls, investigators and others familiar with the matter said.

No information has yet emerged from investigators on any possible text messages he may have sent or received.

Obama begins war on military weapons

Lanza appears to have spent much of his time during the weeks before the shooting in the basement of the home he shared with his mother, Nancy, playing violent video games on his computer, investigators believe based on interviews.

His X-Box, an electronic game playing device that might have led investigators to Lanza's game playing partners across the internet, apparently was not used.

And the thin, withdrawn, young man - a computer tech club member while in high school - destroyed his home computer in a fashion that experts believe may have left it worthless to forensic examiners, as if he had set out to erase clues to his thinking, or who he may have communicated with, before he set out to commit mass homicide.

Before shooting his way into the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, investigators and others familiar with the matter said Lanza also repeatedly shot his mother Nancy, killing the only person with whom he is believed to have been socially engaged.

"He killed the only person who really knew him well and knew what made him tick, so figuring out the why here is going to be difficult," a law enforcement official said.

State police detectives returned to the home on Yogananda Street home he shared with his mother on Wednesday night. They have been combing the house since moments after the gunfire stopped inside the school.

Lanza had two bedrooms in the house, including one in the basement in which he kept his computer, his computer video games and other possessions. Lanza had thousands of dollars worth of video games as well as an X-Box, although it appears he rarely if ever used it, preferring to play violent video games on his computer with other anonymous gamers, investigators were told.

The basement also is where Nancy Lanza, a gun enthusiast and target shooter, kept her collection of weapons in a locked box.

She had at least five weapons - two handguns a semi-automatic rifle, a .22 calibre rifle and a shotgun. Lanza had all the weapons except the .22 with him when he drove to the school.

With the hard drive destroyed, investigators will not be able to trace what games he was playing, who he was playing with and, more importantly, whether he gave anybody forewarning of the horrific violence he unleashed.

Anything he may have written on his computer that could have provided a glimpse into Lanza's thinking also would be irretrievable.

Two state police crime squads have been processing the evidence at the school, with the third one at the house.

Five days after the shootings, investigators still are collecting bullets from inside and outside the school. Lanza fired so many rounds that many bullets pierced cars in the school parking lot.

Sources said that Nancy Lanza owned at least five guns and that all of them were purchased legally since her divorce in 2009.

Adam Lanza was carrying three weapons when he entered the school, two pistols and the Bushmaster rifle that he used to spray the hallway and two classrooms with bullets. A source said that he left a shotgun in the boot of his mother's car, which he drove to the scene.

Police also are still trying to determine how long Lanza had been planning Friday's massacre. There is no indication that he made any purchases in the days before.

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Asian markets mixed, yen up

ASIAN markets mostly rose on Thursday following big gains in the previous session but investors are growing nervous that US leaders have still not agreed a deal to avert the fiscal cliff.

The yen slipped a tad against the euro and dollar after Japan's central bank unveiled more huge monetary easing but it held on to earlier gains as traders had mostly expected the new measures.

Tokyo fell 1.19 per cent on profit-taking after surging to an eight-month high on Wednesday. The index lost 121.07 points to 10,039.33 - a day after breaking the 10,000 barrier for the first time since early April.

Seoul closed 0.32 per cent higher, adding 6.41 points to 1999.50, with the election of conservative Park Geun-hye seeming to have little effect, although dealers were broadly happy as she favours stability over big change.

Sydney was up 0.35 per cent, or 16.3 points, at 4,634.1 and Hong Kong staged a late rally to end 0.16 per cent higher, adding 36.41 points to 22,659.78 while Shanghai gained 0.28 per cent, or 6.11 points, to 2,168.35.

With less than two weeks to go before the fiscal cliff of huge tax hikes and deep spending cuts is due to take effect, US politicians have still not reached a compromise budget deal to cut the nation's deficit with less painful measures.

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he and the Republicans had narrowed differences to "a few hundred billion dollars". But a deal remains elusive.

Republicans are loath to raise taxes, while Democrats do not want to cut spending on programs such as Medicare.

House Speaker John Boehner, the Republican negotiating with the president, has said he is willing to extend tax breaks for everyone earning less than $1 million per year. Obama has said, however, he is willing to go no higher than $400,000.

Boehner announced on Wednesday that he will move to pass his measure, which he describes as his "Plan B", through the House Thursday but Obama warned he would veto the legislation.

"At some point there's got to be... a recognition on the part of my Republican friends that, you know, take the deal," Obama told reporters, as the two sides struggled to reach agreement.

While both sides have rejected the other's offers for a deal they said that talks are ongoing.

However, US traders were not impressed. On Wall Street the Dow finished 0.74 per cent lower, the S&P 500 dropped 0.76 per cent and the Nasdaq lost 0.33 per cent.

The Bank of Japan said Thursday it would expand an asset-buying program by 10 trillion yen ($US119 billion) to 101 trillion yen, days after the country's conservatives won an election promising to boost spending and pressure the bank for aggressive action.

It made no mention of a two-per cent inflation target demanded by incoming prime minister Shinzo Abe but said it would look at reviewing its policy.

The last scheduled policy meeting of the year had been widely seen as a test of whether it would stand pat, shrugging off the outside pressure.

However, it said the new measures were tied to fears about the slowing global economy, which was hurting growth at home.

The yen, which has tumbled against the dollar and euro in recent weeks on the expected victory for the opposition, picked up slightly in early trade on Thursday and managed to hold on to the gains after the BoJ move.

In early European trade the greenback bought 83.93 yen, compared with 84.39 yen in New York late Wednesday, while the euro was at 111.02 yen, from 111.59 yen.

The single currency also fetched $1.3228, against $1.3226.

Oil prices were lower, with New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February dropping 37 cents to $89.61 a barrel in the afternoon and Brent North Sea crude for February dipping 43 cents to $109.93.

Gold was at $1,668.30 at 1030 GMT (2130 AEDT) compared with $1,674.39 late on Wednesday.

In other markets:

- Singapore closed up 0.54 per cent, or 16.95 points, at 3,175.52.

Singapore Telecom rose 0.60 per cent to Sg$3.37 and DBS Group gained 0.54 per cent to Sg$14.99.

- Taipei fell 1.07 per cent, or 82.01 points, to 7,596.46.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. was 1.34 per cent lower at Tw$96.0 while leading smartphone maker HTC rose 0.36 per cent to Tw$275.5.

- Manila added 0.79 per cent, or 45.35 points, to 5,797.74.

- Wellington ended 1.30 per cent higher, adding 52.45 points to 4,075.45.

Chorus surged 4.4 per cent to NZ$2.84, Fletcher Building rose 2.2 per cent to NZ$8.45 and Telecom gained 0.74 per cent to NZ$2.32 but Xero shed 1.3 per cent to NZ$7.60.

- Bangkok shed 0.07 per cent or 1.00 points to close at 1,377.40.

Coal producer Banpu fell 1.42 per cent or 6.00 baht to 418.00 baht while PTT Plc was unchanged at 333.00 baht.

- Jakarta ended down 21.04 points, or 0.49 per cent, at 4,254.82.

Carmaker Astra International fell 2.60 per cent to 7,500 rupiah, cigarette maker Gudang Garam lost 2.73 per cent to 57,000 rupiah, while palm oil producer Astra Agro Lestari decreased 1.62 per cent to 18,250 rupiah.

- Kuala Lumpur shares gained 4.96 points, or 0.30 per cent, to close at 1,670.60.

British American Tobacco added 1.7 per cent to 60.50 ringgit, DiGi.com rose 1.5 per cent to 5.36 and Axiata climbed 1.2 per cent to 6.68.

India's Sensex index slid 0.11 per cent or 22.08 points at 19,453.92 points, snapping two straight days of gains, on profit-taking in index heavyweights.

India's auto and tractor giant Mahindra and Mahindra fell 1.68 per cent to 951.7 rupees while IT outsourcer Wipro fell 1.32 per cent to 380.5.

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Man in Saudi Arabia executed for murder

A SUDANESE man convicted of murder has been beheaded by the sword in the western city of Mecca, the Saudi interior ministry says.

Othman Mohammed was found guilty of killing another Sudanese man, Salah Ahmed, by repeatedly beating him on his head following a dispute between the two, the ministry said in a statement published by state news agency SPA.

Mohammed's beheading raises to 76 the number of people executed so far this year in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom, where 79 were put to death in 2011, according to Amnesty International.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under its strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.

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Malaysia provides refuge for 'Rohingyas'

MALAYSIA has provided refuge to 40 shipwreck survivors believed to be refugees from Myanmar's conflict-wracked Rakhine state, a Malaysian maritime official says.

The refugees arrived late on Tuesday in the southern state of Johor after they were picked up by a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency vessel from a Vietnamese cargo ship off Singapore, the official said.

The 40 refugees were rescued by the cargo ship from a boat believed to be carrying 250 people that sank December 5 in the Bay of Bengal.

Many of those on board were still missing.

The official, who requested anonymity, said the refugees were believed to be from Myanmar's Rohingya minority.

All the refugees appeared to be in good health and were undergoing medical examinations, he said.

They were given temporary refuge while they are processed, he said.

Malaysia hosts about 24,000 refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state, which has seen clashes between Muslim Rohingya and majority Buddhists.

At least 89 people were killed in the violence in October, and more than 5300 houses and religious buildings were burned or destroyed, according to UN figures.

More than 110,000 people have been forced from their homes since the violence first flared in June.

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French judges keep Strauss-Kahn charges

French judges have decided not to drop aggravated pimping charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Source: AAP

FRENCH judges have decided not to drop aggravated pimping charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

His lawyer says the former International Monetary Fund chief will appeal.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have argued the investigating judges in the case are biased.

The case revolves around a suspected luxury prostitution ring in northern France.

A court in the French city of Douai decided on Wednesday to retain the preliminary charges.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have said he attended "libertine" gatherings but didn't know some women present were paid.

The case is one part of an intercontinental legal saga that exposed Strauss-Kahn's active sex life and buried his French presidential ambitions.

Strauss-Kahn reached a settlement in the US last week with a hotel maid who accused of him of trying to rape her in May 2011.

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High turnout in S Korea presidential vote

HUGE crowds have voted in a tight presidential race pitting the son of North Korean refugees against the conservative daughter of an assassinated dictator, who both favour greater engagement with Pyongyang.

Despite freezing temperatures that hovered around -10 degrees Celsius, turnout was higher than in past elections.

South Koreans stood in long lines, wrapped in mufflers and parkas.

Seoul's election watchdog said turnout was about 59 per cent on Wednesday afternoon, which is 11 percentage points higher than five years ago, when current conservative President Lee Myung-bak won a landslide victory.

It is also five percentage points higher than a decade ago, when Moon's protege and former boss, liberal Roh Moo-hyun, won.

Exit polls give a tiny edge to conservative Park Geun-Hye, daughter of late dictator Park Chung-Hee, in her bid to be the country's first woman leader.

As polling booths closed at 6pm (2000 AEDT), a joint exit poll by three TV stations gave Park 50.1 per cent of the vote, with 48.9 per cent for her liberal rival Moon Jae-In.

The lead of 1.2 per cent was inside the margin of error of plus or minus 0.8 per cent.

The eventual occupant of the presidential Blue House will have to deal with a belligerent North Korea, a slowing economy and soaring welfare costs in one of the world's most rapidly ageing societies.

At the headquarters of Park's ruling New Frontier Party, party members jumped up and cheered as the exit polls were flashed on TV monitors, but there was no concession or claim of victory by either side.

"We're pleased," said Kwon Young-Se, one of Park's top campaign staff.

"Exit polls are still preliminary results, so we will watch with a humble mind until all the votes are counted."

Optimistic Park supporters gathered outside her residence south of Seoul, cheering and waving the South Korean flag.

"The polls showed we were slightly behind, but we still see a ray of hope because it's within the margin of error," said Jin Sung-Mee, spokeswoman for Moon's main opposition Democratic United Party.

Park, 60, was looking to make history not just as the first female president of a still male-dominated country, but also the first to be related to a former leader.

Her father Park Chung-Hee remains one of the country's most polarising figures - admired for dragging the country out of poverty and reviled for his ruthless suppression of dissent during 18 years of military rule.

He was shot dead by his spy chief in 1979.

Park's mother had been killed five years earlier by a pro-North Korea gunman aiming for her father.

Moon, the son of North Korean refugees and a former chief of staff to the late president Roh Moo-Hyun, is a former human rights lawyer who was once jailed for protesting against the Park regime.

While both candidates signalled a desire for greater engagement with Pyongyang, Park's approach was far more cautious than Moon's promise to resume aid without preconditions and seek an early summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

The never-married Park had promised a strong, parental style of leadership that would steer the country through the challenges of global economic troubles.

"Like a mother who dedicates her life to her family, I will become the president who takes care of the lives of each one of you," she said in her last televised news conference on Tuesday.

A female president would be a big change for a country that the World Economic Forum recently ranked 108th out of 135 countries in terms of gender equality.

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Blasts, clashes rock camp in Damascus

PALESTINIAN refugees have fled as blasts and fierce clashes rocked their camp in Damascus, a day after President Bashar al-Assad's deputy gave a gloomy assessment of Syria's brutal conflict.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, meanwhile, told Damascus she would increase contacts with the opposition inside Syria to provide the needy with assistance.

The Yarmouk refugee camp housing tens of thousands of Palestinians in southern Damascus saw intense battles during the night between rebels and pro-regime Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), activists said.

Explosions and clashes were heard two days after warplanes bombed the camp for the first time since the start of the 21-month-old conflict.

Sunday's air raid killed eight civilians and drew stiff criticism from the international community and Palestinian leaders.

An activist calling himself Abu al-Sukan said as many as 35 per cent of the people have fled for fear of more fighting and air strikes, while in the camp itself, conditions had gravely deteriorated.

"There is a huge humanitarian crisis in the camp. There are no hospitals, no firefighters and the roads are not safe," he said on Tuesday.

The mosques of the camp broadcast an army ultimatum giving the 150,000 residents until midday (1000 GMT) Tuesday to leave their homes, a camp resident told AFP over the phone.

Sukan said fighters of the rebel Free Syrian Army were braced for more clashes.

As the conflict raged, leaving at least 191 people dead on Monday, according to the Observatory, differences emerged at the top levels of power in Damascus with Vice President Faruq al-Sharaa airing views at odds with Assad.

Sharaa said there would be no outright winner in the conflict, which is estimated to have already killed more than 43,000 people.

"No opposition can end the battle militarily, just as the security forces and army cannot achieve a decisive conclusion," Sharaa told Lebanon's Al-Akhbar newspaper.

"(Assad) does not hide his desire to press on militarily until the final victory (and he believes that) after this, political dialogue will actually still be possible."

A Sunni Muslim, Sharaa has for decades served the Assad regime, but has rarely been seen in public since the Arab Spring-inspired uprising erupted in March 2011.

Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian chief, said Monday she had asked Damascus to allow 10 more aid groups to work inside Syria and that she would increase contacts with the opposition to help those in need.

The Assad government accepted the request, according to Amos.

Reports said Moscow was sending a flotilla of warships to the Mediterranean, which according to military sources could be to evacuate thousands of Russians still in Syria in case the situation in the country worsens.

Russia, a strong ally of Assad, also said two of its nationals along with an Italian steel worker had been abducted in Syria.

Separately, US television journalist Richard Engel was freed after being kidnapped in Syria and held for five days, his employer NBC News said on Tuesday.

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Five polio workers shot dead in Pakistan

GUNMEN on motorbikes have shot dead five female Pakistani polio vaccination workers, police say, highlighting resistance to the country's immunisation campaign.

Four were killed in three different incidents in the sprawling port city and the fifth in the northwestern city of Peshawar, on the second day of a nationwide three-day drive against the disease, which is endemic in Pakistan.

Sagheer Ahmed, the health minister for Sindh province, of which Karachi is capital, said on Tuesday he had ordered a halt to the anti-polio drive in the city in the wake of the shootings.

Senior Karachi police officer Shahid Hayat said another polio worker was shot dead in the city on Monday, but the circumstances of his death only became clear on Tuesday.

In Peshawar, which lies close to the restive tribal areas, a haven for militants and hotspot for polio, two attackers on a motorbike fired on two sisters working on vaccination, killing one, senior police official Javed Khan told AFP.

The incident took place in Mathra suburb of Peshawar which borders Mohmand tribal district, Khan said.

Hayat blamed "militants who issued a fatwa against polio vaccination in the past" for the Karachi killings.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where the highly infectious crippling disease remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.

But efforts to tackle polio have been hampered over the years by suspicion over vaccination drives.

The Taliban have banned immunisations in the northwest, condemning the campaign as a cover for espionage since a Pakistani doctor was jailed after helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination program.

Tuesday's killings in Karachi took place in parts of the city dominated by Pashtuns, Hayat said. Pashtuns are the dominant ethnic group in northwest Pakistan and have a sizeable migrant population in Karachi.

WHO, a partner in government efforts to eradicate the disease, suspended vaccination activities in part of Pakistan's largest city in July after a spate of bloody shootings.

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