French-led troops in Mali seize airport

FRENCH-LED troops have seized the airport and a key bridge serving the Islamist stronghold of Gao in a major boost to a 16-day-old offensive to rout al-Qaeda-linked rebels from Mali's sprawling desert north.

The stunning advance came as the extremist Muslim group controlling Gao since June said it was ready for talks to free a 61-year-old French hostage kidnapped in November.

In a parallel movement, Chadian troops deployed in Mali's eastern neighbour Niger started rolling towards the border to join a contingent of Niger soldiers as part of African efforts to boost the French-led offensive.

"They are a very big contingent and they have tanks and four-wheel drives with machineguns," a Niger security source said.

It was not clear whether they were set to cross the border, which lies only 100km from Gao.

France on Saturday confirmed the capture of the airport and the Wanbary bridge at Gao but said fighting was continuing in Gao itself.

The airport is located about 6km east of Gao, while the bridge lies at the southern entrance to the town, held by the al-Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO).

Sources said earlier that the Islamists had left Gao in the wake of the French-led military offensive on January 11 to stop a triad of al-Qaeda-linked groups from pushing southward from their northern bastions towards Bamako.

An alliance of Tuareg rebels who wanted to declare an independent homeland in the north and hardline Islamist groups seized the northern towns of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal in April last year.

The Islamist groups include MUJAO, Ansar Dine, a homegrown Islamist group, and al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, of which MUJAO is an offshoot.

The Islamists then sidelined the Tuaregs to implement their own Islamic agenda. Their harsh interpretation of sharia law has seen transgressors flogged, stoned and executed, and they have forbidden music and television and forced women to wear veils.

The MUJAO said it was ready for negotiations to release Gilberto Rodriguez Leal, a French national of Portuguese origin who was kidnapped in western Mali.

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China 'must modernise' before global role

CHINA'S new leadership will focus on modernising the country before it increases Beijing's role in international affairs, a top official has told the Davos forum.

Senior Chinese planning official Zhang Xiaoqiang told economic and business leaders gathered in the Swiss ski resort that the whole world would benefit if China completed its development program.

"I think that the new leader of the Chinese government and the Communist Party has emphasised the strategic agenda for China in the future is to realise the modernisation of China," Zhang told the World Economic Forum on Saturday.

"And of course for the largest developing country itself, modernisation must be a great contribution for the human beings' progress and development," said Zhang, a deputy director of China's National Development and Reform Commission.

Zhang was taking part in a panel at the annual World Economic Forum that discussed China's future global agenda, with other members including former British prime minister Gordon Brown and former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd.

China's once-in-a-decade leadership transition is due to take place at a key congress in March, after the Communist Party in November chose current Vice President Xi Jinping to take over the reins from current President Hu Jintao.

Brown, British premier from 2007-2010 and now a UN special education envoy, argued that China should take a more prominent role in global affairs given that it would soon become the largest economy in the world.

"China should now want to play its rightful role in what is not a unipolar world any more but a multipolar world," he said. He added that the world economy was growing "far slower" than it should because of a lack of cooperation.

But Zhang said China was already playing a global role, and urged patience.

"In fact China already takes a lot of efforts in many global challenges, such as dealing with the international financial crisis, the government changes, food security," he told the forum.

Zhang said his nation would "continue to play an important role as a responsible developing country" and wanted to "build up more global development partnership."

"Particularly we first want to promote the common development within the developing countries, but this also will contribute a lot to the whole world's peace, progress and prosperity," he said.

International analysts widely expect China's fast-growing economy to overtake the United States in terms of gross domestic product, or total size, some time in the first half of this century.

But they also see the United States as likely to remain wealthier on a per capita basis given China's huge population of 1.3 billion, while that of the US currently stands at about 315 million.

Rudd, a Mandarin speaker who was Australia's prime minister from 2007 to 2010, warned however of an arms race in Asia fuelled by increasingly nationalistic territorial disputes in China's backyard.

"Economic globalisation does not, as a matter of inevitable mathematical logic, extinguish political nationalism," said Rudd.

"In our part of the world where you've got the biggest arms race unfolding in recent global history, that's the Asian hemisphere, there are important other factors which we need to respect."

Meanwhile Brown - who was introduced to the Davos audience as having led a G20 summit in 2008 that "saved the world from the brink of financial meltdown" - warned that lessons had not been learned from the global debt crisis.

"I think we will have financial crises on a regular basis over the next 30 or 40 years," he said.

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Suicide attack kills 'several' in Kunduz

A SUICIDE attack has killed several Afghan officials and civilians in a crowded area of the northeast city of Kunduz.

Officials among the victims included "the city's counter terrorism police chief and head of traffic police chief", the Kunduz provincial governor's spokesman Enayatullah Khaleeq told AFP on Saturday, adding that "several other policemen and civilians are killed and wounded".

Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussani confirmed the casualties and the attack, saying it took place around 5.20pm (23:50 AEDT).

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but such incidents have in the past been carried out by Taliban insurgents who are leading an 11-year war against the US-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Earlier in the day a suicide attacker riding a bicycle killed two civilians in southeastern Afghanistan's Ghazni province.

On Friday, a suicide bomber in a car attacked a NATO convoy in Afghanistan's strategic Kapisa province on Friday, killing at least five civilians and wounding 15, officials said.

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Former premier leads in Czech vote

LEFT-LEANING former prime minister Milos Zeman is leading in the race for the largely ceremonial post of Czech president.

With the votes from more than 50 per cent of polling stations counted on Saturday, the outspoken Zeman was leading with 57.62 per cent of the vote while his opponent, conservative Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg received 42.37 per cent.

Czechs are electing the country's president in a direct popular vote for the first time, choosing a leader to replace euro-sceptic President Vaclav Klaus.

Zeman and Schwarzenberg, a bow-tie wearing aristocrat, are facing each other in a runoff after finishing as the top two candidates in the first round two weeks ago.

Klaus' second and final term in office ends March 7. The new president will be sworn in the following day.

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NATO missile defence in Turkey operational

THE first of six Patriot missile batteries being deployed to Turkey to protect against attack from Syria has been declared operational and placed under Turkish command, NATO says.

The battery, provided by the Netherlands, is meant to protect the city of Adana by shooting down missiles that could come over the Syrian border. Turkey has become a harsh critic of the regime in Syria, where a vicious civil war has left at least 60,000 people dead.

The United States, Germany and the Netherlands are providing two batteries each of the latest version of the US-made Patriots. The other five Patriot batteries are expected to be in place and operational in the coming days in Adana, Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep.

"This is a clear demonstration of the agility and flexibility of NATO forces and of our willingness to defend Allies who face threats in an unstable world," Admiral James Stavridis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, said in a statement.

NATO reiterated on Saturday that the Patriots are for defensive purposes only. Syria has not fired any of its surface-to-surface missiles at Turkey during its nearly two-year civil war and its government has described the NATO deployment as a provocation.

NATO also deployed Patriot batteries to Turkey during the US-led invasion of Iraq 10 years ago. They were never used and were withdrawn a few months later.

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Kyrgyzstan tougher on bride-kidnapping

THE president of Kyrgyzstan has approved legislation toughening the penalty for the broadly practiced custom of bride-kidnapping.

President Almazbek Atamabyev's office said in a statement on its website on Saturday that sentences for forcing women into marriage against their will could now range up to 10 years.

The offence was previously punishable by a maximum three-year prison term.

Although illegal, the practice of snatching potential brides, often under the age of 18, off the street is widely tolerated in the former Soviet Central Asian nation.

Proponents of bride-kidnapping argue that it is an integral part of nomadic Kyrgyz culture, but some academics argue that the practice has been adopted relatively recently in history.

One leading motivation is believed to be the desire to avoid the cost of onerous dowries.

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Number of new Aussies up on Australia Day

A RECORD number of people will become citizens this Australia Day, marking the end of the migrant journey and the start of their new lives in Australia, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Chris Bowen says.

Mr Bowen says 17,059 people from 145 countries will become Australian citizens on Saturday, with 430 ceremonies planned across the nation.

Australia Day is always the most popular day for citizenship ceremonies, he says.

"Australia Day is a special day for all Australians to come together to celebrate what is great about our nation - our rich history and our promising future," Mr Bowen said in a statement.

"It is also a fitting opportunity for all of us - whether Australians by birth or by choice - to recognise our common bond and unique diversity while celebrating the privileges and responsibilities of Australian citizenship."

Queensland will naturalise the most people - almost 5000.

Brisbane City Council will host the largest single ceremony at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, where about 1200 people will become Australians.

NSW and Victoria will each welcome 3800 new citizens, South Australia 1300, Western Australia 2500, Tasmania 320 and the Northern Territory 260.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Julia Gillard will confer citizenship on 22 people in the national flag-raising and citizenship ceremony in Canberra.

"On behalf of the Australian government and the people of Australia, I congratulate all new citizens as they mark the end of their migrant journey and the start of their new lives as Australians," Mr Bowen said.

More than four-and-a-half million people have become Australian citizens since the first ceremony in 1949, he said.

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Russia backs nationwide 'anti-gay' bill

RUSSIA'S parliament has given initial backing to a controversial bill banning homosexual "propaganda" among minors that could lead to gays being fined for demonstrating or kissing in public.

The vote on the first reading was to be held only hours after at least 20 mostly young opponents of the bill were detained by riot police during a "kiss-in protest" outside the State Duma lower house building.

In the first of three readings, the Duma backed the measure with 388 votes in favour, one against and one abstention after a brief debate.

The strict measure is based on local laws passed in President Vladimir Putin's native city of Saint Petersburg and in several other Russian regions.

The push to agree the law on a federal level has dismayed rights activists who see the legislation in the latest in a sequence of repressive legislation against civil society to be debated by parliament.

But the Duma's family affairs committee chair Yelena Mizulina said she backed a nationwide law that "protected minors from the consequences of homosexuality."

"The unbridled propaganda of homosexuality anywhere you look effectively limits the child's right to free development," said Mizulina in televised comments to journalists ahead of the bill reading.

Her comments came moments after a group of opponents held a prolonged and proud embraces with same-sex partners in open defiance of the bill. It was their third such action outside the Duma in a week and once again ended with police action.

Witnesses said officers detained 20 supporters and opponents of the bill as small scuffles broke outside the parliament building.

Homosexuality was only decriminalised in Russia after the end of the Soviet era and top officials continue to express homophobic views in public.

Russia's leaders repeatedly refer to gays in official language as "people of a non-traditional sexual orientation".

The Moscow authorities have roughly suppressed attempts to stage gay rights parades over the past seven years. A 2010 survey by the Levada Centre found that 74 per cent of respondents thought homosexuality was either "immoral" or "mentally deficient".

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Egypt police fire tear gas in Alexandria

POLICE in the Egyptian city of Alexandria have fired tear gas at protesters, witnesses say, as nationwide rallies mark the second anniversary of the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak.

Clashes erupted in two neighbourhoods of Egypt's second city on Friday between police and protesters who burned tyres, sending plumes of dark smoke into the sky.

"The smoke is black, there is a lot of gas. There are people on the ground because they can't breathe," one of the protesters, only identified as Rasha, told AFP.

Clashes also broke out in the canal city of Suez after protesters tried to storm the governorate headquarters before being pushed back by police, who fired heavy tear gas, witnesses said.

Protesters hurled rocks at police and burnt tyres in the road.

In Cairo, army and police forces were deployed to protect the information ministry which also houses state television and radio, after protesters briefly blocked traffic outside the building, witnesses said.

Tens of thousands took to the streets across the country to protest against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, who is accused of failing to work for the goals of the revolution that ousted Mubarak and consolidating power in the hands of his powerful Muslim Brotherhood.

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Obama picks new chief of staff

US President Barack Obama has chosen trusted adviser and national security expert Denis McDonough as his fifth chief of staff.

A White House official said in a statement that Obama will announce McDonough's appointment on Friday. McDonough, 43, will take over the key role from Jack Lew, Obama's nominee for Treasury secretary.

McDonough has advised Obama on foreign policy for nearly a decade and most recently served as the president's deputy national security adviser.

McDonough's place in Obama's inner circle was illustrated during the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011. He is among those captured in a White House photograph seated in the situation room with Obama and other senior officials watching the raid unfold.

The White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to speak before the president's announcement, said McDonough has played a key role in all of Obama's major national security decisions in recent years, including the end of the war in Iraq, winding down the war in Afghanistan, responses to natural disasters in Haiti and Japan and repeal of the military's ban on openly gay service members.

Earlier, McDonough worked as a foreign policy specialist in Congress.

McDonough's new role was previously filled by Rahm Emanuel, William Daly and Pete Rouse, as interim chief of staff, before Lew.

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Indonesia tries to control flooding

INDONESIAN authorities will use generators and cloud-seeding measures to defuse and push away rain-laden clouds to avoid more flooding that has paralysed Jakarta, an official says.

Heavy rain over the mega-city last week caused 32 deaths and at its peak forced nearly 46,000 people to flee their inundated homes, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, told AFP.

The weather agency has forecast heavy rain for January 26-28, raising concerns that Jakarta - which combined with its satellite cities is home to 20 million people - may get submerged again.

To avoid such flooding a team led by the artificial rain unit of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology will on Saturday start deploying 20 ground-based acetone generators in western Jakarta, in a bid to avert condensation in the region that contributes to larger rain clouds.

The artificial rain unit will also deploy a Hercules plane to carry out cloud seeding measures to force approaching clouds to rain in the ocean before they arrive over the capital, unit head Tri Handoko Seto said.

"We are trying our best to modify the rain to not fall heavily on Jakarta as well as forcing the rainclouds to rain in the sea, or in areas outside Jakarta that can still take heavy rains," Seto told AFP by telephone.

The rainy season is expected to last until March, Nugroho said.

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15,000 crocs escape from Sth African farm

SOUTH Africa's army and police have been called in to rescue residents from thousands of crocodiles that escaped from a farm where the floodgates were opened due to torrential rains.

About 15,000 predators sprung from the Rakwena Crocodile Farm in the far north of the country when owners were forced to open the gates to prevent a storm surge, local newspaper Beeld reported.

A number have since been recaptured, but at least half remain on the loose, scattered far and wide.

Some turned up on a school rugby pitch 120 kilometres away.

The surrounding province of Limpopo has been hit by serious floods that have killed 10 people and made many more homeless.

"Before, there were only a few crocodiles in the Limpopo River. Now there are plenty," said Zane Langman, the son-in-law of Rakwena's owner.

"We go catch them when farmers phone us and say crocs are around."

Langman earlier used a motor boat to rescue some local residents who had climbed onto the roof of a garage to escape the rising floods.

"When we arrived there, the crocodiles were circling them," he said.

The army has been called in to help track down the reptiles, according to police spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi.

"Police, the army, and people from the community are assisting," he said.

No incidents involving crocodile attacks have been reported, he told AFP.

Hundreds of kilometres downstream the Limpopo River floods have also savaged neighbouring Mozambique, were tens of thousands of people were being evacuated from their homes.

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Nepal colonel in UK court over torture

A COLONEL in Nepal's army will stand trial in Britain in June on charges of torture allegedly committed during the Himalayan nation's civil war.

Colonel Kuma Lama appeared by video link from prison for a London court hearing on Thursday. The judge set a provisional trial date of June 5.

Lama, who lives in England, was denied bail.

He was arrested by British police earlier this month and charged with two counts of intentionally "inflicting severe pain or suffering" on two individuals.

Police say the charges relate to incidents that allegedly occurred between April and October 2005 at the Gorusinghe Army Barracks in Nepal.

Thousands of people died and thousands were injured or tortured during Nepal's decade-long civil war, which ended in 2006.

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Toyota, BMW focus on green technology

MOTOR vehicle manufacturers Toyota and BMW say they are working closely together to develop green technology.

The companies said on Thursday they had reached binding agreements on several strategies. These include the possible joint development of a mid-sized sports vehicle, with a feasibility study expected to be completed by the year's end.

"Toyota and the BMW Group are seizing this unique chance to lead the industry towards the future of mobility," Herbert Diess, a member of BMW's management board, said in Tokyo.

"By doing so we will play a central role in defining tomorrow's vehicles."

The agreement would also see the pair work together on developing lightweight vehicle bodies and next-generation vehicle batteries.

The development of fuel-cell systems has a target completion date of 2020, they said.

"The companies are convinced that fuel cell technology is one of the solutions necessary to achieve zero emissions," said a joint statement.

Under an earlier deal, the German automaker agreed to provide diesel engines for Toyota, a major player in environmentally friendly vehicles, as the Japanese firm looks to boost sales in Europe, where more than half of passenger cars are diesel powered.

Demand for lower-emission diesel vehicles is forecast to grow, with further technological advances in the field seen as crucial due to toughening emissions standards.

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Sony fined for UK cyber-attack data breach

ELECTRONICS giant Sony has been fined by Britain's data watchdog for a breach that compromised the personal information of millions of customers using PlayStation video games consoles.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the April 2011 cyberattack was a "serious breach" of Britain's data protection laws and fined the Japanese electronics giant STG250,000 ($A378,000).

Personal information including names, addresses, email addresses, dates of birth and account passwords were compromised, while customers' payment card details were also at risk.

The ICO said the breach was one of the most serious it had ever seen.

It found the attack could have been prevented if Sony's software had been up to date, while technical developments also meant passwords were not secure.

"If you are responsible for so many payment card details and log-in details, then keeping that personal data secure has to be your priority," said ICO deputy commissioner David Smith.

"In this case that just didn't happen, and when the database was targeted - albeit in a determined criminal attack - the security measures in place were simply not good enough.

"It is a company that trades on its technical expertise, and there's no doubt in my mind that they had access to both the technical knowledge and the resources to keep this information safe.

"The case is one of the most serious ever reported to us."

Following the breach, Sony rebuilt its network platform to ensure the personal information it processes is kept secure.

The company intends to appeal against the decision.

"Sony Computer Entertainment Europe strongly disagrees with the ICO's ruling and is planning an appeal," a spokesman said.

The company said it noted that the ICO recognised it was "the victim of 'a focused and determined criminal attack', that 'there is no evidence that encrypted payment card details were accessed', and that 'personal data is unlikely to have been used for fraudulent purposes'".

Sony said: "Criminal attacks on electronic networks are a real and growing aspect of 21st century life and Sony continually works to strengthen our systems."

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Vic hospitals cancel 1300 operations

ELECTIVE surgery for 1300 patients across three Melbourne hospitals will reportedly be cancelled over the next five months as the fallout from $107 million in federal budget cuts continues.

Western Health says 550 patients at the Western and Sunshine hospitals and 750 patients at Williamstown Hospital will not receive elective surgery as planned this financial year, Fairfax reports.

Thousands of elective surgeries are set to be cancelled across the state as hospitals slash services to cope with the federal funding loss.

More than 300 beds were being closed as federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek and her Victorian counterpart David Davis negotiated a time to meet on the funding issue late Thursday, Fairfax said.

Mr Davis has said Canberra has cut $107 million from existing hospital budgets, while Ms Plibersek maintains Victoria will receive $900 million more in hospital funding over four years.

The cuts have prompted The Alfred to reportedly axe 300 operations, while the Royal Children's Hospital has announced it will have to slash 50 jobs.

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Fire rips through Hobart's Queens Domain

A LARGE fire is spreading from hilly bushland just northeast of Hobart's CBD.

The fire was moving uphill from the northeast side of the Queens Domain, fanned by strong winds, Tasmania Police said at 10.30pm (AEDT) on Thursday.

Motorists are being urged to avoid the area and be mindful of police directions and firefighting operations.

Authorities say no buildings are currently threatened.

The blaze has so far consumed around five hectares of long, dry grass at a city council reserve next to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, with at least 14 crews battling to bring it under control, a Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) spokesman said.

"It's quite visual with everybody around Hobart, (but) it's not threatening any properties," he told AAP.

The blaze broke out about 9.40pm (AEDT) and took firefighters using 17 vehicles around three hours to bring under control, a TFS spokesman said.

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Vatican defends ivory record

THE Vatican defended itself on Wednesday against accusations it encourages illegal ivory trafficking, telling elephant lovers it would do what it could to help combat "a serious and unjustifiable phenomenon" but warning campaigners not to expect too much.

The publication of a National Geographic report in September 2012 on illegal ivory pointed the finger at the Vatican, noting the use of ivory in making precious religious tokens and accusing Pope Benedict XVI of accepting or giving ivory items as gifts.

The report sparked a flurry of angry letters and the Vatican responded on Wednesday with a long and personal response penned by its spokesman Federico Lombardi to "friends of the elephants".

Lombardi, 70, said he had "never heard or even read a word that would encourage the use of ivory for devotional objects" since he began working at the Vatican and had "never seen a gift in ivory given by the Pope."

Shops within the tiny Vatican state do not sell items made of ivory and nearby stores which flog religious items to tourists are on Italian territory and do not come under the Holy See's jurisdiction, he said.

"The Vatican has no responsibility and no control to exercise over... businesses that are located in the neighbourhood around the Vatican," he added.

The massacre of elephants for their ivory "is a serious problem that Christians can and should unite against, as against all problems concerning the safeguarding of creation," he said.

However, "it is impossible to think that the Vatican might have at its disposal powerful and effective tools for combating the massacre of elephants by destroying the burgeoning illegal trade in ivory," he added.

Lombardi said the Pope intervenes frequently on environmental awareness and assured campaigners that the Vatican would do more to engage Catholics on the issue of illegal ivory trafficking, including launching a series of information programs on Radio Vatican on the subject.

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Pussy Riot members have no regrets

THE imprisoned members of the Pussy Riot feminist punk band say they feel no regrets about the irreverent "punk prayer" against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral that landed them behind bars for two years.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina offered a vivid, but stoic, description of their harsh prison conditions in interviews published on Wednesday in the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper. They said they don't expect clemency from authorities.

Tolokonnikova, who works at a sewing machine like most female prisoners in Russia's prison colonies, was quoted by the paper as saying she has had her fingers punctured by the needle but has picked up speed and experience and can now meet her quota of making lining for 320 jackets a day.

Like other prisoners, she bathes once a week and uses cold water to wash the rest of the week.

"I am not paying much attention to living conditions," she said in an interview filmed last month. "I'm ascetic, and living conditions matter little for me."

Tolokonnikova said she meditates to prevent her spirit from being dulled by the monotonous labour. She added that the main thing she misses at her prison colony is the ability to read freely; prison conditions leave little room for reading the Bible and philosophy books.

Three members of Pussy Riot were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred in August after they raucously prayed to the Virgin Mary for the deliverance from Putin at Christ the Saviour Cathedral.

One of them, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was later released on appeal, but Tolokonnikova and Alekhina were sent to prison colonies last autumn.

Tolokonnikova argued that their protest wasn't aimed at religion.

"It was an ironic, cheerful and bold act, a political outcry, so to speak," she said, adding that the Russian state media interpretation of it as a blasphemous action was deliberately wrong.

She said she wants to go to a prison church to talk to its priest and attend the service, although she added she has no intention of being baptised just yet.

She said that she had been warned about likely harassment by other prisoners who felt insulted by the band's act, but there was nothing like that at her prison colony in Mordovia, a province in western Russia about 350 kilometres southeast of Moscow.

"They never asked whether I'm religious or anti-religious," she said.

Tolokonnikova said that she has grown tired of the stunt in the cathedral that made the band members global celebrities and drawn protests around the world against Russia's intolerance of dissent.

"It's just impossible to think about your work for so long, you would want to switch to other works and forget about the previous one," she said.

Asked whether she wants to say something to Putin, she answered bluntly: "No, honestly speaking, for me he doesn't exist. He is just a blank spot for me."

Earlier this month, Alekhina, who is serving her sentence at another prison colony in the Ural Mountains Perm region, had an appeal rejected by a local court.

Alekhina complained of systematic violation of human rights by the prison administration.

She said she was transferred into a solitary cell for 90 days in November after receiving threats from fellow inmates that she suspects were instigated by prison authorities.

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McDonald's ekes out higher profit

MCDONALD'S Corp eked out a higher profit in the fourth quarter by luring diners with its value menu, but the world's biggest hamburger chain also warned that a key sales figure is expected to drop this month.

The downbeat forecast reflects the intensifying competition and changing dining habits McDonald's faces.

After years of outperforming its rivals, McDonald's recently hit a snag and took a series of steps to bolster slumping sales, such as touting its Dollar Menu and pushing franchisees to stay open on Christmas.

In November, the company ousted the president of its US business after reporting its first monthly sales drop in nearly a decade.

For the period ended December 31, McDonald's says it earned $US1.4 billion ($A1.33 billion), or $US1.38 per share. That compares with $US1.38 billion, or $US1.33 per share, a year ago.

Revenue rose to $US6.95 billion, up from $US6.82 billion.

The results topped expectations for profit of $US1.33 per share on revenue of $US6.9 billion.

Globally, however, sales at restaurants open at least a year rose just 0.1 per cent for the period. In the US, the figure rose 0.3 per cent.

In Europe, McDonald's biggest market, the figure fell 0.6 per cent as guest counts declined.

The figure fell 1.7 per cent in the region encompassing Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

That's an important measurement of a restaurant chain's performance.

Over the long term, CEO Don Thompson said the company continues to target total sales growth of three per cent to five per cent.

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US stocks open higher after solid earnings

US stocks opened higher on Wednesday following solid earnings reports from leading technology companies.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 43.23 points (0.32 per cent) at 13,755.44.

The broad-based S&P 500 edged up 0.59 point (0.04 per cent) to 1,493.15.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 8.84 (0.28 per cent) at 3,152.01.

The positive opening came after technology companies IBM and Google reported solid earning results on Tuesday after the market closed. Apple is slated to report earnings later on Wednesday.

"The US equity markets are modestly higher in early action, with the Street digesting a plethora of mixed earnings reports," said a Charles Schwab & Co market update.

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Clinton warns of rising militancy

SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton warned of the challenges posed by rising militancy after the Arab Spring as she appeared before US politicians to be grilled about a deadly attack.

"Benghazi didn't happen in a vacuum," Clinton said at the start of a Senate hearing on Wednesday into the September 11 assault on a US mission in eastern Libya.

"The Arab revolutions have scrambled power dynamics and shattered security forces across the region," she told the Senate Foreign Relations committee called to review the lessons learned from the Benghazi attack, in which US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

She choked up as she described welcoming the fallen diplomats home, when their bodies arrived in flag-draped coffins at the Andrews Air Force base.

"I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, and the wives left alone to raise their children," she said, choking back a sob.

She warned politicians, however, that US diplomacy could not pull back in face of the new challenges posed by the evolving geopolitical landscape, saying the United States had to meet a "changing threat environment."

"We cannot afford to retreat now. When America is absent, especially from unstable environments, there are consequences. Extremism takes root, our interests suffer, and our security at home is threatened," she said.

Clinton also highlighted "instability in Mali," saying it "has created an expanding safe haven for terrorists who look to extend their influence and plot further attacks of the kind we saw just last week in Algeria."

Despite keeping a low profile after a long period of ill health in her final weeks in office, Clinton is keen to draw a line under the deadly September 11 Benghazi assault, which triggered a political storm in the United States.

The hearings have also taken on added urgency as Washington reels from last week's attack on a remote Algerian gas plant, in which three Americans were killed.

Clinton was initially set to testify in December after a scathing inquiry blamed "grossly inadequate" security at the outpost in Benghazi for failing to protect staff there.

But she was forced to send in her two deputy secretaries instead when she fell ill with a stomach bug. She later suffered a concussion in a fall, and a blood clot.

Her testimony to two congressional committees now comes on the eve of a Senate hearing to confirm her successor, Senator John Kerry, who is expected to be easily voted in and could take over within days as the top US diplomat.

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Bolivia bus crash kills 25: police

A BUS missed a curve on a road in southwestern Bolivia on Wednesday, causing an accident that killed 25 people and injured 30 others, police told a local radio station.

Major Rufo Munoz, the chief of the traffic police in Potosi, said the bus was carrying 55 passengers from Potosi to La Paz, 574 kilometres to the north.

"According to the technical report, it is presumed that the driver was inebriated and because of a lack of visibility did not see a curve, causing this traffic accident," he told Erbol radio.

He added that the victims included men and women of different ages.

The injured were being taken to a hospital in Potosi, but some were still at the scene awaiting transfer, he said.

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China's young declining in fitness: govt

DESPITE its formidable performance in recent Olympic Games, China has found itself in a crisis of declining fitness among its youngsters.

The government has urged schools to beef up their physical education following a recent outcry touched off when two college students collapsed and died during mandatory annual running exams.

Obesity rates among Chinese students have been climbing.

Experts attribute deteriorating fitness scores to the cruelly competitive environment for college admissions, as well as a proliferation of indoor entertainment like video games and online activities.

Sun Yunxiao, deputy director of China Youth and Children Research Center in Beijing, says the fitness crisis is worrying for the country.

He says: "Our economic power has grown while our people's physiques have not only failed to improve, but have deteriorated. That's unacceptable."

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India warns of nuclear threat to Kashmir

POLICE in Indian Kashmir have warned residents to build underground bunkers to prepare for a possible nuclear war in the disputed region, which is on edge after a string of deadly border clashes.

The warning comes despite a ceasefire which took hold last week in the scenic Himalayan region, after the Indian and Pakistani armies agreed to halt cross-border firing that had threatened to unravel a fragile peace process.

"If the blast wave does not arrive within five seconds of the flash you were far enough from the ground zero," says the notice, headed "Protection against Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) Weapons".

It warns of "initial disorientation" from a nuclear attack, saying the blast may "carry away many prominent and familiar features".

The instructions were issued on Monday in a local English-language Greater Kashmir newspaper by the State Disaster Response Force, which is part of the police.

They vividly describe a nuclear war scenario to prepare residents to deal with "the initial shock wave".

The notice tells them to "wait for the winds to die down and debris to stop falling".

"Blast wind will generally end in one or two minutes after burst and burns, cuts and bruises are no different than conventional injuries. (The) dazzle is temporary and vision should return in few seconds," it says.

It tells residents to build toilet-equipped basement shelters "where the whole family can stay for a fortnight", and says that they should be stocked with non-perishable food.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought three wars since partition in 1947, two of them over the Kashmir region that both nations claim.

Police confirmed they issued the notice but said it "should not be connected with anything else", in an apparent reference to border tension.

The notice is part of regular year-round civil defence preparedness, Mubarak Ganai, deputy inspector general of civil defence in Kashmir police, told AFP.

An Indian counter-terrorism expert criticised the warning as valueless for Kashmiris, who could be forgiven for imagining war was an imminent prospect.

"There can be no conceivable motive for issuing a notice like this," Ajay Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, told AFP.

"Such information collected from here and there is not worth the paper it is printed on," he said, adding that "there can be no preparedness for such an eventuality".

There has been calm along the de facto border in Kashmir since commanders of the two sides agreed last Thursday to halt the cross-border firing.

Pakistan says three of its soldiers died in the firing while India says it lost two of its soldiers - marking the worst violence along the frontier dividing the region since the two nations nearly went to war in 2003.

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Cyber safety mum is SA's award nominee

IN recent years Sonya Ryan's life has been filled with grief and despair as she coped with the murder of her 15-year-old daughter Carly.

But instead of turning away from society, the Adelaide woman has worked tirelessly to prevent the same thing happening to other young Australians.

Ms Ryan established the Carly Ryan Foundation to promote internet safety through presentations in schools and universities and to support victims of cyber crime.

It is that work which has resulted in her being named the South Australian of the Year for 2013.

She says what happened to her daughter can happen to anyone.

"People that groom the young online are manipulating and controlling. They know exactly how to target a child," Ms Ryan says.

"They become the most important person in that child's life, then use that trust to do whatever they like to their victim."

In the case of her daughter, the pedophile was Garry Francis Newman, a middle-aged Victorian man who is serving a minimum of 29 years for murder.

In 2007 Newman used a cyberspace alter-ego, "Brandon Kane", to communicate with Carly after meeting her through a gothic vampire website.

The teenager fell in love with the fictitious guitarist who portrayed himself as a member of the "emo" subculture.

But when Newman, posing as Brandon Kane's father, travelled to Adelaide in February 2007 in a bid to fulfil his sexual fantasies, Carly rejected his advances.

Evidence at the trial revealed she had been bashed, suffocated and placed in the water at Port Elliott, south of Adelaide, where she drowned.

As part of her ongoing campaign Ms Ryan wants online safety to become a compulsory component of the national education curriculum.

She has also thrown her support behind proposed new federal laws that would make it illegal for adults to lie online about their age to meet children.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon plans to introduce legislation into parliament when it resumes in February to reform existing grooming laws.

Called Carly's Law, after Ms Ryan's daughter, the legislation is expected to be referred to a Senate inquiry.

"The problem with current grooming laws is that the police have to prove the predator has contacted the child with a sexual purpose," Senator Xenophon says.

"This reform will make it much easier to protect children."

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Tobacconists march against EU smoking rule

THOUSANDS of tobacconists from across Europe have marched on European Union headquarters to protest against a planned EU crackdown on smoking that includes gruesome health warnings placarded on packets.

From Austria, Germany and Poland, but most largely from France and Italy, 2,200 marchers according to police, 3500 according to organisers, protested on Tuesday against measures they say harm small retailers and encourage cigarette smuggling.

"Brussels is hitting at official distribution networks while nothing is done against smuggling", said the deputy head of the European Confederation of Tobacco Retailers (CEDT), Pascal Montredon, who heads the French branch.

He said the EU should ban cigarette sales on the internet and stop the continual increase in the price of packets in some countries.

He said 6000 of France's 33,000 tobacconists had closed since 2004.

In December, the European Commission released new proposals notably aimed at dissuading young people from taking up smoking that included a ban on menthol cigarettes and large health warnings covering 75 per cent of packets.

Almost 700,000 Europeans die from tobacco-related illnesses each year - equal to the population of a Frankfurt or Palermo - with associated health costs running at more than 25 billion euros ($A31.88 billion), the EU executive said.

A key measure would be a ban on cigarettes, roll-your-own, or smokeless tobacco products that have strong - or "characterising" - flavours, such as menthol, chocolate or vanilla, often popular with young people.

Packs of fewer than 20 cigarettes would also be banned as well as 'slims,' while electronic cigarettes, which contain some nicotine, would only be authorised as medicinal products.

But the new rules must be approved by member states as well as the European Parliament, meaning legislation would come into effect in only about three years.

"Smoking is part of the culture of Europe,' said the head of Austria's VCPO tobacconists, Klaus W Fischer. ""This will end up like prohibition in the US in the 1920s."

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Water shut off to Chilean capital

MORE than two million people in the Chilean capital are without drinking water because of contamination in a river that supplies the city with water, officials say.

Water was shut down to more than 593,000 homes in the metropolitan area of Santiago, beginning early Tuesday until at least midnight, forcing the closure of restaurants, offices and playgrounds in areas affected by the cutoff.

"We had an emergency event owing to circumstances beyond our control that forced us to cut water to 15 neighbourhoods," said Cristian Esquivel, spokesman for the Aguas Andinas water utility.

He said a landslide in the Maipo river, the city's main source of water, had fouled the company's water processing plants.

The city has a population of about five million people.

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Liberia's Taylor begins war crimes appeal

LIBERIAN warlord Charles Taylor has begun his appeal against a 50-year prison sentence handed down by Sierra Leone's UN-backed special court for fuelling the west African nation's savage civil war.

Taylor, wearing a black suit, white shirt and red tie, listened intently on Tuesday as the prosecution began its appeal at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, headquartered in Leidschendam outside The Hague.

The court should "hold responsible not only those who perpetrate the crimes but also those who promote them", said prosecutor Nicholas Koumjian.

"They are just as important, including the lords of war who sell arms in these conflicts," he said.

The court's sentence last May against Taylor, 64, for "some of the most heinous crimes in human history" was widely welcomed around the world at the time.

Judges said he aided and abetted rebel forces fighting against Freetown during Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war, known for its mutilations, drugged child soldiers and sex slaves.

In return, trial judges found, Taylor was paid in "blood diamonds" mined by slave labour in areas kept under the control of ruthless Sierra Leonean rebels.

But prosecutors argue that trial judges made a mistake by only convicting Taylor of aiding and abetting the notorious Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and other rebel groups.

They say the court should have convicted Taylor for actively issuing orders to the RUF and its ally, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).

Taylor was convicted of aiding and abetting terrorism, murder and rape, committed by the RUF, who waged a terror campaign during a civil war that claimed 120,000 lives between 1991 and 2001.

The initial trial, which saw model Naomi Campbell testify she had received a gift of "dirty" diamonds, said to be from the flamboyant Taylor, wrapped up in March 2011.

His sentence was the first handed down against a former head of state in an international court since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg in 1946.

Koumjian said that as a result, the trial is "of great consequence".

Tuesday's hearing was dominated by particularly complex legal arguments - with both sides saying judges made legal mistakes in convicting Taylor in April last year and sentencing him in May.

The prosecution wants Taylor jailed for 80 years, "in order to reflect the totality of his overall conduct and culpability".

The prosecution attacked Taylor's lawyers, who they said would argue that the former warlord had merely benefited by obtaining blood diamonds.

Appeals judges are expected to have a decision by September, with the Liberian ex-president remaining behind bars at the UN's detention unit in The Hague until appeals proceedings are finalised.

If his appeal fails, Taylor will serve his sentence in a British jail.

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French, Mali troops retake Islamist towns

FRENCH and Malian troops have recaptured the Malian towns of Diabaly and Douentza from Islamist fighters, France's defence minister says.

After heavy fighting in Diabaly over the past week there was uncertainty over whether the Islamists had fled, but French and Malian troops met no resistance when they entered the town on Monday.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement it was now under the control of French and Malian troops and the central town of Douentza had also been retaken.

French warplanes have pounded suspected Islamist positions around both towns since France swept to the aid of the crippled Malian army on January 11, a day after the Islamists made a push towards the capital Bamako.

Diabaly, which lies 400 kilometres north of Bamako, was seized by the Islamists a week ago in an attack that surprised observers as the town lies deep within supposedly government-held territory.

Douentza lies in what was Islamist territory east and north of the town of Konna, whose capture earlier this month by extremists sparked the French intervention. Konna was recaptured by the Malian army last week.

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Iran helps Syria build paramilitary force

PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad's regime has put together a new paramilitary force of men and women, some trained by key ally Iran, to fight what is now becoming a guerrilla war, a watchdog says.

The force, dubbed the National Defence Army, gathers together existing popular committees of pro-regime civilian fighters under a new, better-trained and armed hierarchy, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The popular committees were originally formed to protect pro-regime neighbourhoods from rebels.

"The (regular) army is not trained to fight a guerrilla war, so the regime has resorted to creating the National Defence Army," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Most of the new fighters are members or supporters of the ruling Baath party, said Abdel Rahman. "They include men and women, and members of all the sects."

The new force is not connected to the pro-regime shabiha militia, which the army and security forces have deployed ever since the outbreak of an anti-regime revolt to help it suppress dissent across the country.

Members of the paramilitary force, like the popular committees before, will focus on fighting in their own neighbourhoods.

On Friday, Moscow's Russia Today reported on its website that the new National Defence Army was being set up to "defend districts against gunmen".

"The Syrian authorities are set to create ... a National Defence Army, parallel to regime forces, so that the (regular) army is freed up for combat," the website reported citing an unnamed official.

Abdel Rahman, whose Observatory relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground, said Iran was involved in building the paramilitary force.

"The paramilitary force includes an elite fighting force trained by Iran," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"Iran has provided training to the paramilitary force's commando fighters."

Iran, Damascus's key regional ally, staunchly backs Assad and in September 2012 said its elite Quds Force, which is tasked with carrying out operations outside the Islamic republic, was giving Damascus "counsel and advice".

On the ground, an activist said the new force was already active in the central province of Homs.

"The number of regime fighters in the province has swelled in recent days, as the National Defence Army has started to come into action," anti-regime activist Hadi al-Abdullah told AFP via the internet from the rebel-held town of Qusayr.

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Stubborn streak got nurse out of Algeria

A FRENCH nurse caught up in the Algeria hostage crisis has revealed how the fear of being raped and an overwhelming determination "not to submit to terrorists" ensured she survived.

The nurse, identified only as Muriel, escaped from the gas complex after spending the first day of the siege hidden with three other expatriates in offices the Islamist gunmen failed to scour.

"Two of us wanted to try and get out, the two others said it was safer to stay," she told Europe 1 radio.

After hours of agonised indecision, her sceptical colleagues were finally convinced that it was better to die trying to escape than leave their destiny in the hands of fate.

"I told them we had to take our chance. You can't submit to them, otherwise you are giving in to the terrorists," Muriel said, explaining how this defiant mindset had enabled her to avoid being paralysed by terror.

"Even with a little act, saying to yourself they are trying to capture me but I won't let them succeed, you regain your identity," she said.

"These people were ready to commit any kind of barbaric act but I succeeded in thwarting them."

Muriel and her colleagues escaped into the desert with the help of a pair of pliers she found in the ambulance on the site and she used to cut a hole in the exterior fence.

But she admitted she had feared the worst in the hours after the plant was seized at dawn on Wednesday in a raid linked to France's military action in neighbouring Mali.

"I said to myself they cannot find me, I am a women and I am French. With what is happening in Mali they'll kill me immediately.

"At best I'd get a bullet in the head straight away. At worst, as a woman - well, I don't need to draw you a picture.

"We stayed hidden in the office for hours, jumping out of our skin at every little noise. Every time we heard someone in the corridor, we said 'that's it, the terrorists are coming to get us'.

"It was our good fortune that they didn't come and search where we were, in a little corner out of the way. But for those left behind it was really awful."

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Crowds gather for Obama inauguration

CROWDS are gathering in Washington for President Barack Obama's inauguration.

Rhenda Phillips-Sanders, 55, who travelled from Shreveport, Louisiana, for the inauguration, is carrying the same enthusiasm that brought her there four years ago.

"To be able to have a black president within our lifetime and then to have him come back twice, that's history within itself," the African-American said. "I'm so excited I could do the running man."

While the public inauguration will lose some of its punch because Obama was officially sworn in on Sunday (Monday AEDT), it will hold added meaning because it coincides with Martin Luther King Jr Day - the federal holiday that commemorates the fallen civil rights leader.

Obama, 51, will repeat his oath of office for the public, laying his hands on two stacked Bibles of historic significance before delivering the much-awaited inaugural speech.

The burgundy velvet Bible was used by president Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration in 1861, as he headed into the dark Civil War journey that would end slavery. The black King James Bible was carried by King on his travels around the country until he was slain in 1968.

The previous day's private oath was necessary to fulfil the constitutional mandate that every presidential term begin at noon on January 20. Dating back to 1821, if the date fell on a Sunday, public celebrations have been postponed to another day.

Obama and his family, along with the family of Vice-President Joe Biden, are attending a service at St John's Episcopal Church within sight of the White House, observing a tradition for presidents dating back to 1816.

They will then head to Capitol Hill for the public ceremonies. Pop star Beyonce is to sing the national anthem, and singer-songwriter James Taylor and singer Kelly Clarkson are to perform.

After his second oath-taking, administered by Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts, Obama is to deliver the inaugural speech, outlining his second-term ambitions.

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Filmmaker Michael Winner dies at 77

THE British filmmaker behind Death Wish, restaurant critic and bon vivant Michael Winner, has died at the age of 77.

Winner's wife Geraldine says he died on Monday at his London home after an illness.

Winner's 30 movies included three Death Wish films starring the late Charles Bronson.

He had a second career as restaurant critic for the Sunday Times newspaper, where his highest praise was to declare a meal "historic".

His wife, a former dancer who married Winner two years ago, said he was "a wonderful man, brilliant, funny and generous. A light has gone out in my life."

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Japan PM confirms 7 deaths in Algeria

JAPAN'S prime minister says seven Japanese people are now known to have been killed in the Algerian hostage crisis, the first confirmation from Tokyo that any of its nationals died.

"I was informed by vice-foreign minister (Minoru) Kiuchi that as a result of identifications of bodies at a hospital in In Amenas, seven were confirmed to be Japanese employees of JGC," Shinzo Abe told his ministers on Monday.

The Japanese firm had earlier said it did not know the fate of 17 of its employees, 10 of whom were Japanese.

The prime minister said so far it had not been possible to confirm what had happened to the other Japanese nationals who remain unaccounted for.

"There are still three more Japanese people whose safety has not been confirmed. I want all of you to do everything possible to continue gathering information and confirm their fate," he told his ministers.

"Japanese people who work at the world's frontiers, the innocent people were victimised. It is extremely painful," Abe said.

A witness at the desert gas plant told AFP he was aware of nine Japanese deaths over the extended siege, which began on Wednesday and ended in a bloodbath on Saturday when the Algerian military moved in.

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25 bodies of foreigners found in Algeria

ALGERIAN security forces have found the bodies of 25 foreigners as they combed a desert gas plant after a deadly stand-off with Islamists.

Citing security sources, Anis Rahmani of the private television channel Ennahar told AFP the army discovered "the bodies of 25 hostages" on Sunday as they sought to secure the sprawling Sahara site at In Amenas.

Reports also emerged that nine Japanese hostages had been executed.

"In all nine Japanese were killed," one Algerian witness identified as Brahim said a day after special forces swooped on the gas plant run by Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil and Sonatrach of Algeria to end the siege that began on Wednesday.

In Tokyo, a foreign ministry official said: "We are in a position not to comment on this kind of information at all. Please understand."

Algerian Communications Minister Mohamed Said had earlier told a radio station: "I fear that it (the toll) may be revised upward," after at least 23 foreigners and Algerians, mostly hostages, were killed over the four days.

Governments scrambled to track down missing citizens as details emerged of the deadly showdown after Islamists of the "Signatories in Blood" group raided the plant on Wednesday, demanding an end to French military intervention in Mali.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement that "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."

Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp had said 10 of its Japanese and seven of its foreign workers remained unaccounted for, before the reports became known of Japanese hostages being executed.

Kuala Lumpur said JGC had told it one of two Malaysians still unaccounted for is dead while 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 has said.

Relatives of Kenneth Whiteside, 59, from Glenrothes in Scotland, were "devastated" after hearing that 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 In Amenas plant.

Most of the hostages were freed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched a first rescue operation that 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".

"The blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out, and the United States condemns their actions in the strongest possible terms," Obama said in a statement.

At least one American had already been confirmed dead before Saturday's final assault.

Cameron on Sunday refused to criticise Algeria, saying the attack on the In Amenas gas complex had been an "extremely difficult" situation to deal with.

Hollande called Algiers' response "the most appropriate" given it was dealing with "coldly determined terrorists ready to kill their hostages".

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Syria opposition seeks deal on PM-in-exile

SYRIA'S opposition umbrella group, which most Western and Arab powers opposed to the Damascus regime have recognised, is meeting in Istanbul in a bid to name a prime minister-in-exile, one of its leaders says.

The Syrian National Coalition is discussing the idea of a government-in-exile but differences have emerged between members of the group, including over who should lead the new executive, an opposition official told AFP.

"A proposal was made to name Riad Hijab but it has run into much criticism," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Hijab is a former prime minister under President Bashar al-Assad who defected in August last year and has since worked closely with Turkish leaders to help restructure the fragmented Syrian opposition.

He is now based in Jordan.

The Istanbul meeting is also scheduled to discuss what the opposition leader said were unkept promises by countries that had pledged diplomatic, military and financial support to the coalition.

The National Council, which is the leading component of the Cairo-based umbrella group, has called for the establishment of an interim government with full executive powers in areas of Syria controlled by the rebels.

The group is also due to meet on January 28 in Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday.

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Assad's mother in Dubai: Syrians

ANISA Makhluf, the mother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has left the war-torn country and joined her daughter in Dubai, expatriates in the United Arab Emirates and an activist say.

Makhluf has been living next to her daughter, Bushra, the only sister of Assad, in Dubai for about 10 days, Syrian expatriates told AFP.

Bushra's husband General Assef Shawkat, an army deputy chief of staff, was killed along with three other high-ranking Syrian officials in a July 18 bombing at the National Security headquarters in Damascus.

In September, Syrian residents in the Gulf emirate said that Bushra had enrolled her five children at a private school in Dubai where she had moved.

Makhluf's "departure from Syria is another indication of Assad losing support even from within his family," said Ayman Abdel Nour, head of the newly-formed group Syrian Christians for Democracy and editor-in-chief of opposition news website all4syria.com.

Analysts say that Assad is increasingly relying on the tightly-knit circle surrounding him, which includes Maher, his only brother still alive and who commands the army's notorious Fourth Brigade.

Assad's two other brothers Bassel and Majd are dead. The embattled president also relies on relatives from his mother's side, analysts say.

A large number of businessmen and wealthy Syrians who had close ties with the regime have fled the deadly bloodshed in Syria to Dubai in the past few months.

More than 60,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria's 22-month conflict, according to the United Nations.

The conflict has sent some 600,000 people fleeing the country, most of them to neighbouring countries, according to the world body.

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Gillard speech to have China, cyber focus

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard will reportedly seek to boost Labor's defence credentials in a speech singling out China and cyber attacks as key security concerns.

Ms Gillard will make the comments in her first important speech of the election year to the Australian National University's National Security College in Canberra on Wednesday, The Australian newspaper reports.

She will also outline Australia's national security objectives, actions and priorities over the next five years.

Sources familiar with the document told the paper it was a "much more substantial" contribution than former prime minister Kevin Rudd's 2008 national security statement to parliament.

The document focuses on Australia's strategic environment - in particular, the growing economic, political and military clout of China - and a massive escalation in cyber attacks against government and industry.

It's not expected to contain new policy initiatives or resource commitments, the paper said.

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IMF chief urges Greece to carry out reform

NO additional measures would be necessary for Greece if it carries out the reforms under its bailout program, IMF chief Christine Lagarde says.

"But if the structural reforms are not carried out ... then more cuts would be necessary," the head of the International Monetary Fund has told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini in an interview.

Entering a sixth year straight of recession, the heavily indebted country is relying on EU-IMF bailout packages.

It also received a private-sector debt cut early last year.

Since 2010, the EU and IMF have committed 240 billion euros ($A307 billion) in rescue loans to Greece, while last week the IMF unblocked a frozen tranche of 3.2 billion euros from its pending aid package.

"Greece holds its future in its own hands ... It is up to the country itself to succeed in its program," Lagarde said.

The IMF chief said she had a very good working relationship with both the Greek prime minister and finance minister.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and I "have a very good and honest relationship", she said, adding that he has even "surprised" her with his stance following his election.

Lagarde also said she believed the co-existence of three different parties in Greece's coalition government is beneficial.

"Regarding the implementation of the program and the responsibilities towards the people, a wide coalition is much more important than a tight majority," she said.

Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's coalition government has lost 16 deputies since coming to power in June, as a result of opposition to continued austerity.

It now counts a majority of 163 seats out of an overall 300.

On Friday, the IMF's mission chief for Greece Poul Thomsen said the country will still need additional help from its European partners next year.

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Legal challenge to Manus launched in PNG

A LEGAL challenge to Australia's asylum seeker processing centre on Manus Island has been launched by Papua New Guinea's opposition.

Lawyers acting for PNG Opposition Leader Belden Namah filed a summons with the National Court on Friday.

Mr Namah said in a statement that he regretted taking the action against the PNG government but he believed the processing centre was unconstitutional.

"The ministers of the O'Neill-Dion government have now received a summons to appear and defend their conduct in the National Court," he said in a statement.

Mr Namah said the detainees on Manus were being held illegally in PNG.

"We will take this matter as far as necessary to ensure that the values of our nation's constitution are upheld," he said.

"This legal challenge also attempts to remedy the many abuses of PNG law and of ministerial powers which have given rise to the situation on Manus."

Mr Namah said the opposition challenged the right of the government to force people seeking refugee status in Australia to enter PNG, where they were being held "illegally and indefinitely under inhumane conditions".

"We challenge the right of the government to make this arrangement with the government of a foreign nation, again in contravention of our constitution," he added.

The injunction seeks to have the current detainees released and to prevent the government from receiving or detaining any more asylum seekers from Australia.

"I am confident that our justice system will succeed in upholding this truth, where our government has so regrettably failed," Mr Namah said.

The National Court is yet to set a date to hear the challenge, the ABC reports.

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