Man gets bail after train station assault

A SYDNEY hotel worker has been charged with the sexual assault of a young male who was passed out drunk at a train station.

The man was granted bail during a brief appearance in Central Local Court on Friday.

Police allege the heavily intoxicated 18-year-old victim had been out with friends before he made his way to Central railway station in the early hours of January 8.

He passed out sometime before 3.30am (AEDT) and awoke to find the man allegedly performing a lewd act on him.

Following inquiries by police, the man was arrested at a hotel in Darling Harbour on Thursday and charged with one count of sexual intercourse.

He was granted conditional bail which included a surety of $10,000.

His wife was among family members who supported him in court.

He will appear before Downing Centre Local Court on April 9.

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Merkel ally resigns in plagiarism scandal

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has suffered a major political blow with the resignation of her education minister over plagiarism allegations.

Merkel said she had accepted the resignation of Annette Schavan "with a heavy heart". Schavan's former university stripped her of her doctorate, saying she had plagiarised parts of her thesis, Person and Conscience, 33 years ago.

Schavan reiterated her vow to fight the allegations but said she did not want the claims to damage the office, the party or the federal government.

"I think today is the right day to leave my ministerial post and to concentrate on my duties as a member of parliament," said a visibly moved Schavan on Saturday.

Schavan, 57, became the second close ally of Merkel to step down over plagiarism after Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a popular defence minister, resigned in 2011.

The extent of Schavan's alleged plagiarism is thought to be less than that of zu Guttenberg's, whose actions earned the aristocrat the nicknames Baron cut-and-paste and zu Googleberg.

Nevertheless, Schavan's mistakes were seen as indefensible given her position as education minister in a country where academic titles are taken extremely seriously.

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Hundreds of Vic firefighters kept busy

VICTORIAN firefighters have been kept busy battling two major fires in the state's east and a number of smaller blazes closer to Melbourne.

A control centre spokesman said 195 firefighters battled the 81,000-hectare Aberfeldy fire in Gippsland in Victoria's east on Saturday.

"It's burning in steep difficult terrain," the spokesman said.

Closer to Melbourne, a watch and act alert was downgraded to an advice warning for communities near an out-of-control fire at Kerrie, northwest of Melbourne.

There are 22 trucks at the scene.

"That's likely to burn into the night and probably won't be brought under control till morning," the spokesman said.

"There's a lot of smoke and activity but it's not threatening houses or property."

A fire at Arthurs Creek, northeast of Melbourne, is under control.

Conditions at a second major fire at Harrietville in alpine country in the northeast had eased, the spokesman said.

A watch and act alert has also been downgraded to an advice warning for the Hotham Heights and Dinner Plain areas, but all residents are believed to have been evacuated.

Wind gusts and spot fires were still a worry in the area as 312 firefighters, 11 aircraft and 60 vehicles worked on the fire on Saturday.

The spokesman said wind gusts were making the fire difficult to predict.

A watch and act warning is in place for Dargo at the southern side of the Harrietville fire that has so far burned around 16,000 hectares.

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Third death linked to Vic cheese company

A THIRD person has died following a listeria outbreak linked to soft cheeses produced in Victoria.

Victoria's acting chief health officer, Dr Michael Ackland, has confirmed the death of a 68-year-old New South Wales man in late January was linked to the listeria contamination of Jindi cheese products, Fairfax reported on Sunday.

An 84-year-old Victorian man and a 44-year-old Tasmanian man have also died of listeria infection. A pregnant NSW woman miscarried. More than 20 other cases have been reported.

Jindi has voluntarily recalled all batches of cheese manufactured up to January 6.

Listeria, a bacterial infection, has a long incubation period and more people could become ill.

The Victoria health department says it acted promptly to contain the outbreak, but has warned there could be more cases.

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Tunisians mass for slain leader's funeral

TENS of thousands of Tunisians chanting anti-government slogans have attended the funeral of an assassinated opposition politician.

Military helicopters hovered overhead and tensions threatened to boil over as mourners came from all over the country on Friday to mark the assassination of 48-year-old lawyer Chokri Belaid, a harsh critic of the Islamist government.

The country was largely shut down due to a general strike.

Efforts to stem the country's worst crisis since the 2011 revolution deposed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali have so far failed and the funeral has become a platform to mobilise popular anger.

The anti-government sentiment at the cemetery was palpable and there was a brief scuffle when officials identified as being with the governing coalition were stopped by the crowd from entering.

The army, one of the few state institutions people still respect, provided security for the funeral march.

Once the standard bearer in the region for its political consensus, the country's transition to democracy has been shaken by a economic problems and political turmoil.

Belaid had accused the ruling Islamist Ennahda party of resorting to thugs to attack opposition rallies. His family and allies accuse the party of complicity in his killing on Wednesday. Although they have offered no proof, the allegations have fanned popular dissatisfaction with the government.

"We can't accept that they assassinate freedom, that they assassinate democracy - that's what they are doing - we are burying a martyr," said Mohammed Souissi, a 63-year-old veterinarian who showed up at the cemetery, where the crowd seemed unfazed by the intermittent rain and sang the national anthem.

More than a dozen offices of the Ennahda party were attacked overnight in towns around the country, Tunisian media reported. Schools, shops, banks and other institutions were all shuttered following the general strike.

Tunisia's prime minister offered to replace the government after Belaid's killing in response to longstanding opposition demands, but that attempt may have backfired as his ruling Islamist party rejected his decision - exposing internal divisions between moderates and hardliners.

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Nissan quarterly profit dives

NISSAN Motor Co has suffered a 34.6 per cent plunge in October-December profit to 54.1 billion yen ($A564.28 million) as global sales languished, especially in China, where anti-Japanese sentiment flared over a territorial dispute.

Yokohama-based Nissan said on Friday its quarterly sales dipped 5.3 per cent from a year earlier to Y2.2 trillion ($A22.95 billion) yen.

All the Japanese automakers are experiencing a sales decline in China, where a territorial dispute set off anti-Japanese riots and boycotts last year.

A slowdown in Europe added to Nissan's woes.

Nissan also struggled in the key US market, which was booming for rival Toyota Motor Corp.

Nissan stuck to its fiscal year forecast through March for a Y320 billion ($A3.34 billion) yen profit on Y9.82 trillion ($A102.43 billion) yen sales.

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India rape outrage spreads to South Africa

THE chime sounds every four minutes on the radio station, reminding listeners that statistically yet another child or woman in South Africa is being raped.

It's also a call to arms for citizens outraged over the gang-rape of a teenager who was mutilated - her body carved open - and left for dead on a construction site.

While India agonises with its high prevalence of rape because of a fatal attack on a young woman on a bus, South Africans are now becoming galvanised by the attack on the teenager in a small town. Civil society and governments in both countries are saying this must stop.

The injuries to the 17-year-old were so horrific that nurses in the operating theatre, where doctors tried in vain to save her life, are undergoing trauma counselling.

The chimes on Talk Radio 702 are part of a campaign urging South Africans to identify perpetrators of rape that has become endemic. One in four females is raped here, according to several studies, from months-old babies to 94-year-old grandmothers.

The Citizen newspaper published an editorial calling for citizens to take collective responsibility in the fight against sexual crimes.

"Somehow, somewhere there must be a tipping point where society is so convulsed by a collective anger over rape that we begin to turn the tide against this terrible scourge," the newspaper said. "Each of us needs to ask what we can do to stop this awful trend. And then we must act accordingly. You can help."

The Star newspaper's editor, Makhudu Sefara, ran a front-page editorial saying: "Stand up. Speak out. Help us turn this evil around once and for all."

South Africans appear to be inspired by the mass demonstrations in India that protest a culture of sexual violence and revulsion over the gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman on a New Delhi bus who died of internal injuries from a metal bar. India, with a population of 1.2 billion people, had 24,206 rapes reported in 2011. South Africa, population 50 million, reported 2.5 times that number of rapes last year.

Opposition politician Lindiwe Mazibuko described "a silent war against the children and women of this country ... We live in a deeply patriarchal and injured society where the rights of women are not respected."

She said she would request a national dialogue on the crisis.

President Jacob Zuma, who was acquitted on charges of raping the daughter of a family friend in 2005, said on Thursday "that government would never rest until the perpetrators and all those who rape and abuse women and children are meted with the maximum justice that the law allows".

For Professor Rachel Jewkes, a doctor heading the Women's Research Unit of South Africa's Medical Research Council who has studied sexual violence here for 20 years, much more is needed.

"I'm jolly pleased to hear that even Jacob Zuma has belatedly come in, but we need to remember that actually women are raped and actually die from their injuries from rape almost every day in South Africa, and we need to make sure that the very, very profound sense of horror and outrage that people feel now is translated into something concrete."

Shaheda Omar, clinical director of Johannesburg's Teddy Bear Clinic for child victims of abuse, said: "We've had huge outcries in the past, then things just fall through the cracks again, but I think there's a stronger sense of solidarity now."

Omar has worked with child victims for 28 years and suffers trauma spasms and headaches as a result. She said the government needs to enact "stringent measures, actions having consequences and perpetrators being brought to book to deter others".

Organisations that have been working with rape survivors plan a mass outdoor meeting next week in Johannesburg, she said.

Some South Africans, imbued with a chauvinism that believes men have a right to sex, do not even understand what constitutes rape, according to some who called in to radio stations.

Jewkes said a study she conducted in 2009 showed 62 per cent of surveyed boys over age 11 believed that forcing someone to have sex was not an act of violence. One-third said girls enjoy being raped. Jewkes' study had 37 per cent of surveyed men saying they had raped a women or child, and 75 per cent admitting they first raped a teenager. All the men came from Gauteng, South Africa's most populated province.

The 17-year-old raped on Saturday last week in Bredasdorp, a Western Cape town known for its giant protea flowers, lived long enough to identify a former 22-year-old boyfriend as one of her attackers. Police took him into custody.

On Thursday they arrested a 21-year-old suspect and on Friday a 23-year-old. All are to appear in court on Monday. According to media reports, the teen was attacked by five men.

The maximum sentence for rape in South Africa is life in prison. But official statistics show less than 10 per cent of reported sexual crimes result in a successful prosecution, making many reluctant to report rape.

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Coal train drivers strike over union right

COAL train drivers at the centre of a 48-hour rail stoppage say the dispute is about their right to be represented by a union.

Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) national secretary Bob Nanva says the stoppage is about the right of rail freight workers to collectively bargain through their union.

"Pacific National has tried to frustrate the legitimate right of this workforce to collectively bargain," Mr Nanva said in a statement.

"The company's recent behaviour has now made today's strike as much about our right to stand up for ourselves as it is about this particular EBA (enterprise bargaining agreement).

"Through the course of this dispute Pacific National has offered inducements to employees who don't take part in industrial action and threatened a lower pay offer for those who do," he said.

RTBU members employed by Pacific National Coal, a division of the stock exchange listed company Asciano, began their 48-hour strike at midnight on Thursday.

The RTBU and Pacific National Coal could not agree earlier in the day on a new enterprise agreement for 800 workers, despite the involvement of the Fair Work Commission and discussions with Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten.

The strike threatens the delivery of 600,000 tonnes of coal worth more than $55 million at current prices by Pacific National, while disrupting the 20 to 30 per cent of the state's coal it does not haul because of about 40 idle trains blocking lines.

The RTBU started negotiations last year by asking for pay rises over three years of nine, seven and seven per cent.

Pacific National responded with four per cent a year for three years.

The workers rejected the offer but Pacific National reduced its offer to three per cent from this week, which led to an escalation of the proposed strike action from 24 hours to 48 hours.

AAP understands the union has reduced its claim to seven, five and five per cent.

Most of the workers, who include train drivers, maintainers and terminal operators, are paid a base rate of $63,000 a year, but the company says the average fully trained train driver earns $105,000, including overtime.

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Govt wants to reveal MRRT data: Swan

THE federal government will make sure people know how much money is really coming from the controversial new mining tax - if the tax commissioner agrees, Treasurer Wayne Swan says.

The Senate ordered the tax commissioner this week to reveal how much money, if any, has flowed from the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT).

Treasury forecast that the tax on the super profits of iron ore and coalminers would raise $2 billion this financial year, but analysts believe that's unlikely.

Despite calls to reveal the amount, the government has been insisting the commissioner can't reveal the tax receipts of mining companies for legal reasons.

Mr Swan said the government believed any MRRT revenue data should be published but says it is up to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to decide.

"If the ATO assesses it can provide information specifically about MRRT revenue from the second quarter to the government, then we will ensure it is made public," he said in a statement on Friday.

Protecting the confidentiality of individual taxpayers was essential, the Treasurer said. "But I believe there is a case to examine whether large and multinational businesses should have the same level of confidentiality about the taxes they have paid."

Mr Swan said revenues from the mining tax had taken a massive hit because of ongoing uncertainty in the global economy, volatile commodity prices and the high Australian dollar.

"MRRT is a profits-based tax that raises more revenue when profits are higher and less when they are lower; that's the whole point of the tax," he said.

Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said earlier this week the government was looking into how corporate tax laws could be made more transparent.

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Pilot rescued as Tas fire threat lowered

A PILOT has been rescued after his helicopter crashed while fighting a bushfire in Tasmania, where emergency bushfire warnings have been downgraded.

Strong wind gusts earlier fanned a fire burning at Molesworth in the Derwent Valley, with the Tasmanian Fire Service (TFS) issuing an emergency alert for the area, warning residents it was likely too late to leave and to activate their bushfire survival plan.

The TFS warned the fire danger rating in Molesworth, in the state's south, was still very high but had downgraded the emergency warning to a watch and act alert on Thursday night.

The Molesworth fire terrain has made parts of it inaccessible to the crews working in the area, with four helicopters being used as water-bombers.

One of the firefighting pilots, a 52-year-old Hobart man, crashed into a clearing near the bushfire before being rescued about 5pm (AEDT).

Police said the man was airlifted to the Royal Hobart Hospital for assessment and was shaken by the incident but not seriously hurt.

Two schools in the area, Collinsvale and Molesworth Primary Schools, will remain closed on Friday.

The TFS said the fire had impacted on Suhrs Road, Fehlbergs Road, Valley Road and Collins Cap Road to Springdale Road and may impact on the areas of Myrtle Forest Road and Old Springdale Road within the next six to 12 hours.

The TFS says there may be embers, smoke and ash falling on Molesworth, Glenlusk and Collinsvale.

A watch and act alert is also in place for an out-of-control blaze near Franklin in the Huon Valley, south of Hobart, with the area on a high fire danger rating.

A watch and act alert had also previously been put in place for a fire at Lefroy near George Town, in the state's north, with the area on a low to moderate fire danger rating.

A total fire ban has been declared for the northern and southern regions of Tasmania for Friday.

The fire ban covers Break O'Day, Dorset Flinders, George Town, Launceston, Meander Valley, Northern Midlands, West Tamar, Brighton, Central Highlands, Clarence City, Derwent Valley, Glamorgan, Spring Bay, Glenorchy, Hobart, Huon Valley, Kingborough, Sorell, Southern Midlands and Tasman.

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Union wants risky mothers-to-be locked up

THE Queensland police union is calling for tougher laws to send risk-taking pregnant women into safe houses in an effort to monitor their behaviour.

In a submission to the Queensland Child Protection Inquiry, the union says the rights of an unborn child should be considered ahead of the mother, The Australian reports.

Union president Ian Leavers says the state should be able to intervene in cases where children are at risk of foetal alcohol syndrome and drug addictions.

"Those children also deserve the right to a full life and health and should not be disadvantaged simply because of the actions or inaction of their birth mother," he says in the submission.

"The state must have the ability to intervene and protect the unborn child when its mother refuses, or is incapable or unwilling to do so."

Mr Leavers said tougher laws would complement the criminal code, which provides for a charge of killing an unborn child or grievous bodily harm for any person who violently kills or harms an unborn child.

The submission expresses views of frontline police who work in child protection, Mr Leavers says in the document.

The inquiry is headed by former Family Court judge Tim Carmody, who is expected to release his final report in April.

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ICC demands Libya hand over Gaddafi ex-spy

INTERNATIONAL Criminal Court judges have demanded Libya hand over Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief Abdullah Senoussi to face charges of crimes against humanity.

The latest broadside in the legal tug-of-war between The Hague-based ICC and Tripoli over where Senoussi and Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam should be tried repeated a demand for Senoussi to be handed over.

The ICC "orders the Libyan authorities to proceed to the immediate surrender of Mr Senoussi to the court", said a ruling issued on Wednesday and made public on Thursday.

The ICC has the option of calling on the United Nations Security Council to take action.

The ICC is mulling a Libyan request to put Senoussi and Gaddafi on trial there, while the ICC itself wants to try them on charges of crimes against humanity committed in the conflict that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The ICC, which was mandated by the UN Security Council to investigate the Libyan conflict, issued arrest warrants in June 2011 for both Gaddafi and Senoussi on charges of crimes against humanity.

Lawyers for the two accused have said they will not get a fair trial in Libya.

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Man charged over NSW south coast shooting

A MAN has been charged after he allegedly shot into a home on the NSW south coast.

The 26-year-old man was arrested at a house in Nowra on Thursday, after he allegedly fired several rounds into a home on McKay Street, Nowra in December last year.

No one was injured in the shooting.

Police seized a rifle, double shortened double barrel shotgun and Taser, which had all been stolen, while also locating a shotgun and ammunition.

The man has been charged with two counts of possess unauthorised firearm and one count of possess shortened firearm.

He has been refused bail and will face Nowra Local Court on Friday.

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Time Warner earnings up, raises dividend

TIME Warner is reporting a 51 per cent increase in fourth-quarter earnings even as revenue remains largely unchanged. Rising fees from cable and satellite companies and higher ad revenue at the TV networks offset revenue declines at its movie studio and magazine businesses.

Net income was $US1.17 billion ($A1.13 billion), or $1.21 a share, for the final three months of 2012. That's up from $773 million, or 76 cents a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted for one-time items, earnings came to $1.17 per share. That beat the $1.10 per share that analysts expected.

Revenue was almost steady at $8.16 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected revenue of $8.22 billion.

The company expects 2013 adjusted earnings to be up in the low double-digit percentage.

Time Warner Inc is raising its quarterly dividend by 11 per cent to 28.75 cents per share.

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India growth to decline to 5.4 pct: IMF

INDIA'S annual economic growth is expected to decline to 5.4 per cent with a string of recent reforms not enough to offset a failure to invest in infrastructure, the IMF says.

The finance ministry has previously forecast expansion of 5.7 to 5.9 per cent in the 2012/13 financial year but the International Monetary Fund said in its annual report on India that a slowdown would be more pronounced than expected.

"In 2011/12, India's growth rate was 6.5 per cent. That figure is expected to drop to 5.4 per cent in 2012/13," said the IMF.

"Despite the poor outlook for the global economy, this is a far larger drop than might be expected."

With elections due early next year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government is hoping a string of pro-market reforms unveiled last year and last week's move to cut interest rates for the first time in nine months will boost the economy.

In its report, the IMF said "the government has already taken significant steps to restore growth" with its reforms, which include a hike in fuel prices and plans to allow foreign supermarket chains such as Walmart to operate in India.

However it added that "more needs to be done".

The organisation said that India was paying the price for failing to ensure investment in infrastructure kept pace with economic growth in the previous decade when growth rates were close to double figures.

India's infrastructure shortfalls were rudely highlighted last year when it experienced mass power cuts.

"Addressing India's long-term energy needs, for example, will require solving complicated problems related to coal (which powers most of India's electricity plants), while easing traffic jams will require facilitating the acquisition of land to widen roads or build new ones."

The slowdown in growth has triggered a fall-off in support for the ruling Congress party, with elections due in India in little more than a year.

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German economic turnaround confirmed

GERMANY appears to have put the worst of the crisis behind it, analysts say, with industrial orders on the rise, lending weight to the recent sharp gains in confidence indicators.

Industrial orders increased by 0.8 per cent in December compared with November, after falling by 1.8 per cent the previous month, the economy ministry said in a statement.

Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had been pencilling in a gain of 0.7 per cent for December.

"There was an above-average volume of big-ticket orders," the ministry explained.

And while domestic orders declined by 1.2 per cent, orders from abroad rose sharply by 2.4 per cent, it calculated.

By sector, incoming orders for semi-finished goods fell by 3.6 per cent month-on-month in December, while orders for capital goods and consumer goods increased by 3.6 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively.

Using a two-month comparison to iron out short-term fluctuations, orders rose by 0.5 per cent in November and December combined compared with the preceding two months.

"At the end of last year, industrial orders picked up again, which bodes well for the overall trend in orders for the current year," the ministry said.

"Together with the improvement in business confidence, early indicators point to a end to the current phase of industrial weakness in the foreseeable future," the ministry said.

Analysts shared the ministry's confidence, especially as it appears to back up the recent strong rise in industrial sentiment indicators.

"All in all, German factory orders are back on to a positive trend in the fourth quarter of last year, which should continue in 2013," said Thomas Harjes at Barclays Research.

"This bodes well for our forecast of a swift recovery of economic activity currently underway in Germany, also reflecting a robust expansion again of industrial activity," the analyst said.

Commerzbank analyst Ralph Solveen said that the underlying upward trend in orders since last autumn "supports our expectation that the German economy has achieved a turn for the better. After a weak fourth quarter of 2012, we therefore assume it already returned to noticeable growth in the first months of this year," he said.

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Iranians can 'wipe out' Israel if attacked

THE Iranian people are ready to march on Israel to "wipe it out" if the Jewish state attacks the Islamic republic, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says in statements published by Egypt's state news agency.

"The people of Iran are ready to march on Israel to wipe it out if it launches into an adventure against Tehran" and attacks the country, the Iranian president told Egyptian newspaper editors, according to excerpts published by MENA.

"The Zionists... hope to aggress Iran and attack it, but they are very afraid of the Iranian reaction and of the consequences of such an attack," he said in the Arabic transcription of the comments made during a visit to Egypt.

"Our defence forces are capable of dissuading any aggressor and making him regret his act," Ahmadinejad said.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Tuesday that the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran was growing under the "terrifying dictatorship" ruling the Islamic republic.

"The Iranian danger has grown," Peres said at the opening of the newly-elected Israeli parliament. "It threatens our existence, the independence of the Arab states, the peace of the whole world.

Much of the international community fears that Iran's nuclear program includes efforts to develop nuclear weapons, a charge that Tehran denies.

Israel believes that Iran must be prevented from reaching military nuclear capabilities at any cost and refuses to rule out military intervention to achieve this.

Ahmadinejad is on an historic visit to Egypt, the first by an Iranian president since Tehran severed diplomatic ties with Cairo in 1980 in protest at the Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

While in Cairo, he is attending a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

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US stocks back in retreat mode

US stocks were back in retreat mode on Wednesday, as markets resist a push higher to their all-time highs.

Six minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 61.89 points (0.44 per cent) lower at 13,917.41.

The S&P 500 index dropped 5.91 (0.39 per cent) to 1505.38, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite dropped 10.6 points (0.33) to 3160.98

Wednesday's trading showed the market continues to trade erratically. Recent trading has seen large double or triple-digit moves alternate in the Dow Jones index since the index breached 14,000 last Friday.

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Iran downplays Ahmadinejad shoe attack

IRAN'S foreign ministry has downplayed an incident in Cairo in which a protester tried to throw a shoe at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying it did not indicate Egypt's official stance towards Tehran.

"What is important to us is the behaviour of Egyptian officials and the nation, who respect the Islamic republic as a major power," the ISNA news agency quoted ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.

On Tuesday evening, Iranian President Ahmadinejad was booed by a man who also tried to throw his shoe at him as he left Cairo's Al-Hussein mosque following prayers.

The man, identified as a "Syrian opposition" member by ISNA, also pushed a bodyguard but he was quickly dealt with and Ahmadinejad was able to enter his car.

At the scene, four youths waved placards scrawled with slogans against Iran over its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in its 22-month conflict with rebels.

"O Ahmadinejad, do not think the Syrian blood is in vain. We will take revenge on the Shi'ites," read one of the posters.

Ahmadinejad, unfazed by the incident, termed it a "minor issue".

Talking to Egyptian media late on Tuesday, the president said: "There might be some opposition in both countries who disturb the atmosphere... by prejudice and some actions," the official IRNA news agency reported.

Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president to visit Cairo in more than 30 years, was given a red-carpet welcome by Islamist President Mohamed Morsi when he arrived on Tuesday.

But he faced criticism by Egypt's top Sunni cleric who asked him not to interfere in the affairs of Gulf states.

Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar, also urged Ahmadinejad to uphold the rights of his Shi'ite-ruled country's Sunni minority, denouncing what he described as the "spread of Shi'ism in Sunni lands".

Mehmanparast on Wednesday considered Ahmadinejad's three-day visit as an "effective" step forward in bilateral ties and said it created "stability in the region".

Ahmadinejad's visit comes amid thawing relations between Egypt and Iran, which severed ties with Cairo in 1980 in protest at a peace treaty signed the previous year between Israel and Egypt.

Iran has been reaching out to Egypt since Islamists came to power in the wake of the 2011 revolution that ousted veteran president Hosni Mubarak, a staunch critic of Tehran.

Morsi, who hails from the powerful Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, has attended a Non-Aligned Summit in Iran, becoming the first Egyptian president to travel to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

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Dell to be bought by founder and Microsoft

SLUMPING personal computer maker Dell is selling itself for $US24.4 billion ($A23.51 billion) to its founder and a group of investors that includes Microsoft. It's the largest deal of its kind since the Great Recession dried up financing for risky manoeuvres like this.

The complex agreement announced on Tuesday will end Dell Inc's nearly 25-year history as a publicly traded company. Shareholders are receiving $13.65 per share for their stock.

The deal reflects Dell's desire to engineer a turnaround attempt away from the glare and financial pressures of Wall Street.

Founder Michael Dell will remain the company's CEO and largest shareholder. He already owned a nearly 16 per cent stake in the company, which is based in Round Rock, Texas.

Microsoft Corp is taking part in the deal with a $2.0 billion loan.

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Germany's 'Cookie Monster' returns biscuit

A SELF-STYLED Cookie Monster thief who took a large golden biscuit from outside a renowned German baked good maker to demand goodies for sick children appears to have returned the emblem.

A large golden biscuit wrapped up in a red ribbon mysteriously appeared on a monument in front of Hanover University in northern Germany and police said they were checking if it was indeed the missing company symbol.

The removal last month of the 20-kilo golden biscuit from the front of the Bahlsen firm headquarters, which among other things produces Leibniz butter cookies, has made headlines since a ransom letter emerged.

As well as demanding biscuits for children in a hospital, the letter called for a 1000 euro ($A1305)- reward that Bahlsen had offered for the emblem's return to be donated to an animal shelter.

A photo of an unidentified person in a Cookie Monster costume, a character from the children's television series Sesame Street, was attached. The costumed culprit reappeared again in a second letter sent to the regional Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday.

That letter, made up of newspaper clippings, announced the return of the golden biscuit, stating: "Because Werni, like me, so loves the biscuit, and is now always crying and misses the biscuit so much, I'm giving it back."

The message was apparently referring to Werner Bahlsen, head of the company, which last week called for the golden biscuit's return and said it was ready to give 1000 Leibniz cookies to 52 social institutions.

The golden emblem, which resembles one of the biscuits, had hung outside the company, established in 1889, for around 100 years and reappeared on Tuesday hanging around the neck of a horse monument.

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Car crash kills man in state's far north

A MAN has been killed after he lost control of the car he was driving and it smashed into a tree.

Police said the man, 57, was driving a ute on Coolamon Scene Drive at Mullumbimby, about 1.50pm on Tuesday.

They said he lost control of the car, which veered off the road and ploughed into a tree.

The man died at the scene.

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Ear chopper gunman to face court

A MAN will face court on Wednesday after he allegedly cut off part of a teenager's ear in a bizarre robbery attempt on the Gold Coast.

A 16-year-old boy and his male friend, 15, were walking at Varsity Lakes late on Monday night, when a man approached them, produced a gun, and demanded they hand over property.

The man then used a pair of scissors to cut off the bottom half of the 16-year-old's ear lobe before fleeing the scene, police allege.

On Tuesday night, police said they had charged an 18-year-old man with armed robbery, deprivation of liberty, common assault and one count of an act intended to cause grievous bodily harm, in relation to the incident.

The alleged attacker remains in custody, and will front Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning.

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Egypt foreign reserves drop dramatically

EGYPT'S foreign reserves fell by almost 10 per cent to $US13.6 billion ($A13.10 billion) in January, the Central Bank of Egypt said in a statement on Tuesday published by the official MENA news agency.

The bank said "foreign reserves fell heavily by $1.4 billion to $13.61 billion in January, from $15 billion in December," the agency reported. The statement gave no reason for the fall.

Despite an influx of $5 billion in aid from Qatar in the form of grants and loans over the past year, the reserves have continued to drop.

MENA quoted an economics expert saying the decrease since December was partly due to Egypt paying interest on foreign loans and a drop in tourism revenues due to continuing political unrest.

The bank had also made dollars available to the government to import food and oil products, and sold dollars to banks in auctions in a controlled devaluation of the Egyptian pound.

The bank had warned last month that its reserves had reached critical levels as political turmoil forced the government to postpone subsidy cuts and finalising a deal with the IMF for $4.8 billion in aid.

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US shares rebound, but Dell falls on deal

US shares have rebounded in opening trade after the previous day's sharp correction, but Dell sank 2.6 per cent after the company announced a plan to take itself private and de-list from the Nasdaq.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 75.55 points (0.54 per cent) to 13,955.63.

The S&P 500 index gained 9.28 (0.62 per cent) to 1504.99, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite picked up 10.44 points (0.33 per cent) to 3141.61.

Dell shares dropped 2.64 per cent to $13.27 after announcing a $24.4 billion deal to go private, valuing the company at $13.65 a share.

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Ahmadinejad ready to go into space

PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he's ready "to be the first man in space" under Iran's ambitious program that aims to send a human being into orbit by 2020.

"Our youth are determined to send a man into space within the next four, five years and I'm sure that will happen," he said during a ceremony in Tehran where two new Iranian-made satellites were unveiled, according to ISNA news agency.

"I'm ready to be the first Iranian to be sacrificed by the scientists of my country and go into space, even though I know there are a lot of candidates," Ahmadinejad quipped.

He added to the buoyant atmosphere, saying he was willing to "auction (himself) and donate" the money to the Iran's space program, which has shrunk because of international economic sanctions over Tehran's controversial nuclear drive, ISNA reported.

Iran, which last week announced it had successfully sent a small monkey into space, has said it wants to send a man into orbit by 2020.

Ahmadinejad unveiled on Monday two small satellites, named Nahid and Zohreh (Venus in Farsi and Arabic, respectively).

Nahid, an observation satellite equipped with solar panels, is intended to orbit at an altitude of between 250 and 370 kilometres. Iran has put three other small satellites into the same orbit since 2009.

Zohreh is a geostationary communications satellite that will be placed at an altitude of 36,000 kilometres, something Iran has never tried before.

No launch date was given.

Iran's space program deeply unsettles Western nations, which fear it could be used to develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads they suspect are being developed in secret, despite denials from Tehran.

The technology used in space rockets can also be used in ballistic missiles. The Security Council has imposed an almost total embargo on the export of nuclear and space technology to Iran since 2007.

Tehran denies its space program has any link with its alleged nuclear ambitions.

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Celebrity protester wedding stuns Russia

RUSSIA'S glamorous protest leader, Ksenia Sobchak, has surprised Russians by secretly marrying a popular actor who shares her anti-Putin views, just months after declaring her love for a radical protest leader in Hello! magazine.

Sobchak held a surprise party at which she appeared in a white dress and veil with her new husband - actor Maxim Vitorgan, 40, who has starred in a string of popular comedies, the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid revealed at the weekend.

She announced her marriage publicly in characteristic style - on Twitter. "Thank you everyone for the good wishes!" she wrote, posting a photograph of the couple's rings.

Sobchak, 31, became a household name in Russia after first entering the limelight as a blonde party girl with close ties to Vladimir Putin, the protege of her late father Anatoly Sobchak.

She then hosted a popular reality show, before becoming the most prominent celebrity to last year join the mass protest movement and turning against Putin over fraud-tainted elections.

She would drop in at sit-ins - sometimes in full studio make-up - speak at rallies and was detained by police several times.

Her romance with radical protest leader Ilya Yashin - a member of the Solidarity movement led by chess champion Garry Kasparov - began after she invited him onto her MTV Russia show.

To many they seemed an incongruous couple: Sobchak was a millionaire television host who had launched her own perfume, while Yashin was a dapper but ascetic revolutionary who disapproved of her handbag collection.

Their romance was made public last June when investigators made an early-morning raid of her apartment allegedly over her participation in protests, and found Yashin there, which they duly published in their official report.

Hello! magazine published a photo-shoot of the couple in Marrakesh in November. Sobchak said she fell for Yashin when he gallantly let her take the stage before him at a freezing cold rally.

But Yashin appeared somewhat uncomfortable with his new celebrity profile and did not participate in the Hello! interview. The couple did not publicly announce a separation.

Vitorgan is an actor at a popular Moscow theatre and has starred in mildly satirical comedy films including one called Election Day about rough-and-ready spin doctoring methods of the 1990s. He has spoken during at least one anti-Putin protest in Moscow.

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US stocks retreat after big Friday rally

US stocks have retreated in early trading after Friday's dramatic surge, which took the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 14,000 points.

Leading analysts had predicted the Dow would struggle in the immediate aftermath of Friday's rally, when the Dow closed at levels not seen since 2007.

Five minutes into trade on Monday, the Dow was down 98.54 points, or 0.70 per cent, to 13,911.25.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 9.02 points, or 0.60 per cent, to 1,504.15.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down 15.85 points, or 0.50 per cent, to 3,163.24.

Schaeffer's Investment Research options strategist Tony Venosa predicted trading would see the "psychologically" important 14,000 level tested.

"Continue to watch this round number, as there could be an increase in volatility as the mainstream public becomes aware. Meanwhile, earnings season begins to wind down," Venosa said.

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Afghan, Pakistani leaders want peace deal

THE leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan say they will work to reach a peace deal within six months, while throwing their weight behind moves for the Taliban to open an office in Doha.

Following talks hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari also urged the Islamists to join the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

But with no Taliban representative at the tripartite talks and with the militants still refusing to talk to Kabul, analysts said the commitment by the three leaders risked being one-sided.

They had a private dinner on Sunday and then full talks on Monday at Cameron's Chequers country retreat near London, amid growing fears that a civil war could erupt when international troops leave Afghanistan in 2014.

"All sides agreed on the urgency of this work and committed themselves to take all necessary measures to achieve the goal of a peace settlement over the next six months," they said in a joint statement issued by Cameron's office.

"They supported the opening of an office in Doha for the purpose of negotiations between the Taliban and the High Peace Council of Afghanistan as part of an Afghan-led peace process," the statement said.

Karzai had previously shunned the idea of a Taliban office in Doha because of fears that it would lead to the Kabul government being frozen out of talks between the United States and the Taliban.

The joint statement also said that the Afghan and Pakistani leaders had agreed arrangements to "strengthen coordination" of the release of Taliban detainees from Pakistani custody.

Cameron, whose country is the second biggest contributor of troops to Afghanistan with 9000 troops still in the country, appealed directly to the Taliban to join the reconciliation process.

"Now is the time for everyone to participate in a peaceful, political process in Afghanistan," he told a news conference after the talks.

Karzai said he hoped in future to have "very close, brotherly and good neighbourly" relations with Pakistan, which has been regularly accused by both Kabul and Washington of helping to destabilise Afghanistan.

Zardari said it was in Islamabad's interests to support the initiative.

"Peace in Afghanistan is peace in Pakistan. We feel that we can only survive together," he said. "We cannot change our neighbourhood or our neighbours."

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UK politician admits obstructing justice

IT started with a traffic penalty. It ended in political exile.

Former British cabinet minister Chris Huhne - once one of the country's leading politicians - has pleaded guilty to the charge of obstruction of justice over a career-wrecking attempt to pin a speeding penalty on his wife.

Prosecutors say Huhne in 2003 persuaded economist Vicky Pryce to say she had been driving the car, so he could avoid a driving ban. Huhne repeatedly denied wrongdoing, but he was forced to step down as a minister after being charged.

His career in shambles, Huhne changed his plea from innocent to guilty at London's Southwark Crown Court on Monday.

He later emerged from court to tell reporters he was resigning from his parliamentary seat as well.

Before the scandal broke, Huhne was seen as one of the nation's top politicians, only narrowly losing to Nick Clegg for the leadership of Britain's third place Liberal Democrats Party in 2007.

The Liberal Democrats went on to form a coalition with Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party, handing Clegg the position of deputy prime minister. At that point, many still thought of the 58-year-old Huhne as Clegg's likely successor.

Huhne now faces the prospect of a prison term. Obstruction of justice carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, although the penalty generally averages around a year.

Pryce's willingness to take the heat for her husband did not save their marriage. The pair split in 2010 after it was revealed he had an affair with his public relations adviser. She faces a separate trial, due to begin on Tuesday.

In a statement, Clegg said he was "shocked and saddened" by Huhne's guilty plea but said he had "taken the right decision" by resigning.

Cameron's spokesman declined to comment on Huhne's guilty plea or resignation.

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Key to raise visa rules for New Zealanders

NEW Zealand Prime Minister John Key will raise the treatment of New Zealanders in Australia when he meets Prime Minister Julia Gillard at annual talks.

The pair will hold annual trans-Tasman prime ministerial talks in Queenstown on Friday and Saturday.

The meeting also marks 30 years of the Closer Economic Relations trade deal, which Mr Key says has made Australia and New Zealand two of the most integrated economies in the world.

Despite such strong ties and paying tax to the Australian government for years, an estimated 280,000 New Zealand residents who have arrived in Australia since 2001 are on temporary or special category visas, meaning they are denied voting rights, access to welfare benefits and student loans.

A joint productivity commission report last year said Australia's selection criteria and quotas for permanent residence may prevent more than 100,000 "temporary resident" New Zealanders ever getting it, recommending the Australian government make changes.

According to internal Australian immigration documents, one potential change is allowing New Zealanders who have lived in Australia for eight years or more to gain permanent residency.

Mr Key says he's raised the issue of Kiwis' rights with Ms Gillard previously, and Australian lawmakers have given it some consideration.

He has no doubt it will be on the agenda again this weekend.

"There are a number of factors they need to consider. One of them is obviously the financial implications but then there is whether they think there is fairness in the system as it currently sits," he said.

"We always encourage a situation where New Zealanders are treated well and fairly, but that can have different definitions in different places."

Ultimately, any decision rests with the Australian government, Mr Key said, adding that New Zealanders heading across the Tasman to live need to be aware of their obligations and entitlements.

Mr Key said New Zealand's treatment of Australians living here is clearly different, and his government has no plans to change that.

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UNHCR slams conditions on Manus Island

THE UN refugee agency has slammed the federal government's immigration detention centre in Papua New Guinea and has called for the transfer of children to be suspended.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says it has found significant shortcomings in how asylum seekers are transferred, treated and processed on PNG's Manus Island.

The UNCHR's damning assessment comes after its officials made a three-day visit to Manus a fortnight ago.

Its report finds that the government's current regime is inconsistent with Australia's international obligations.

The mandatory detention of 34 children and their families at the centre is particularly troubling, UNHCR regional representative Richard Towle said in a statement accompanying the report.

The report calls on the government to cease transferring children until all appropriate legal and administrative safeguards for their processing and treatment are in place.

That should include arrangements to house them in an "open centre" as opposed to the current detention centre, it says.

The UNHCR says it is also deeply concerned about the lack of a legal framework under which refugee claims can be assessed in PNG and the capacity and expertise of officials to process such claims.

"Asylum seekers are distressed and confused about their situation. They are in closed detention, without a process in sight. They feel they have been forgotten," Mr Towle said.

Transfers to Manus Island began in November. There were more than 200 asylum seekers there when the UNHCR visited.

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Thai cop arrested with 20 elephant tusks

A THAI policeman has been arrested after he was caught trying to smuggle 20 elephant tusks, officials say.

The haul was discovered when the suspect - in plain clothes but driving a police van - was stopped at a checkpoint in the southern province of Chumphon on Saturday, Police Colonel Chalard Polnakarn told AFP.

"We found 10 pairs of elephant tusks in the van and charged him with illegal possession of elephant tusks, which he confessed to during the investigation," Chalard said.

The origin of the tusks was unclear.

International trade in elephant ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989.

But a rise in the illegal trade in ivory has been fuelled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks are used in traditional medicines and to make ornaments.

Conservationists say ivory from Africa is often smuggled into Thailand and passed off as coming from Thai elephants, as a legal loophole allows the legal trade in ivory from domesticated elephants.

Wildlife campaign group Freeland praised the latest seizure as a "valiant act of fighting corruption to protect wildlife".

"We need more officers like them to fight this new form of transnational organised crime," Freeland director Steven Galster said in a statement.

Freeland said that in the past year thousands of tusks had been seized as they were smuggled into Asia from Africa due to "rampant elephant poaching".

It comes as Thailand prepares to host the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) in Bangkok in March.

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Steve Bracks a chance for Roxon's seat

FORMER Victorian premier Steve Bracks only has to ask, to be handed the safe Labor seat of Gellibrand replacing Nicola Roxon, who is retiring from politics, Fairfax Media says.

Insiders have told Fairfax that the seat, which overlaps Mr Bracks' former state seat of Williamstown, was his for the taking.

He lives in the electorate and is being touted as a natural fit.

Mr Bracks, who shocked Victoria by quitting politics in July 2007, is on a walking holiday in Tasmania and could not be contacted.

His only other rival for the seat would be Senator David Feeney, one of the so-called faceless men who helped Julia Gillard depose Kevin Rudd as prime minister.

Senator Feeney occupies the No.3 position on Labor's Victorian Senate ticket, and is unlikely to be re-elected given Labor's poor standing in opinion polls.

But Fairfax says it would be impossible to deny Mr Bracks if he wanted to return to politics on the federal stage.

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Drug tracking system needs checks: experts

A NATIONAL system to track addictive drug prescriptions might reduce overprescribing but could lead to unintended consequences, experts say.

The proposed reporting system for potentially addictive drugs such as morphine is worthwhile if it provides opioids - schedule eight drugs - to those with a genuine need for them, says Dr Fiona Shand from the University of New South Wales' Black Dog Institute.

But if patients are detected "doctor shopping" - visiting different GPs and chemists to fulfil multiple drug scripts - doctors need to respond appropriately, she says.

"Clearly, if a person has been doctor shopping it may be that their pain is not well managed or that they have developed a dependence on the drug and they actually need professional assistance with that," Dr Shand told AAP.

There were also concerns that if patients dependent on prescription opioids could no longer access those drugs, they would simply switch to other illicit or prescription substances, Dr Shand said.

"We want to see prescription opioids available to people who need them," she said.

"We just want to make sure that they are used in a way that doesn't harm people and ... this system can really help with that."

In an article in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, Dr Shand and co-authors said the system would need to be closely monitored for unintended consequences.

There was little research available on real-time monitoring systems around the world but a review of a system in Ohio found doctors changed opioid prescriptions in 41 per cent of cases.

Of those, 61 per cent received no opioids or less than previously while 39 per cent got higher doses.

Dr Shand said this suggested that in more than a third of cases, the information available to doctors increased their confidence in prescribing opioids after reviewing the patient's history.

The federal government committed $5 million last February to establish a real-time prescription reporting system for schedule eight drugs.

The move came after evidence, including from coronial inquests, that patients were overdosing on prescription drugs after doctor shopping.

Tasmania is the only state with a real-time prescription monitoring program.

A Victorian coroner recommended the state government implement its own system if the federal program was delayed or proved inadequate, following a spate of prescription drug-related deaths in Victoria.

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Two die in Victorian head-on collision

TWO drivers, a man and a woman, have died in a head-on collision in Victoria's west.

Police believe a car travelling west on the Hamilton Highway collided with a car travelling east, near the intersection of Collins Lane, Berrybank about 4.40pm (AEDT) on Sunday.

Both drivers died at the scene while a passenger, who was travelling in the east-bound car, was airlifted to The Alfred hospital with a broken arm and pelvis and is in a serious but stable condition.

The deaths took the state's road toll to 20, 12 fewer than for the same time last year.

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Israel implicitly confirms Syria raid

ISRAEL has implicitly confirmed it staged an air strike on Syria last week, as President Bashar al-Assad accused the Jewish state of trying to "destabilise" the strife-torn country.

The foreign minister of Damascus ally Iran, meanwhile, said he welcomed Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib's stated readiness to hold talks with representatives of Assad's regime.

Four days after an air raid which Damascus said targeted a military complex near the capital, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak spoke to reporters in Munich but refrained from directly confirming that Israel staged the strike.

Barak told the Munich Security Conference on Sunday it was "another proof that when we say something we mean it".

He added: "We say that we don't think that it should be allowable to bring advanced weapon systems into Lebanon, the Hezbollah from Syria, when Assad falls."

Wednesday's air strike targeted surface-to-air missiles and an adjacent military complex believed to house chemical agents, according to a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Damascus has threatened to retaliate, further fuelling fears of a regional spillover of the country's 22-month conflict, which the UN says has already left more than 60,000 people dead.

Forty-eight hours after the reported strike, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told AFP Washington was increasingly concerned that "chaos" in Syria could allow Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah Shi'ite movement to obtain sophisticated weapons from Damascus.

Ahead of the air raid, Israeli officials cranked up the rhetoric about Syria's arsenal, which includes chemical agents, warning of dire consequences if they end up in the hands of the Iran-allied Hezbollah.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating war in 2006.

In Damascus, Assad on Sunday accused Israel of seeking to "destabilise" Syria, state news agency SANA reported.

The raid "unmasked the true role Israel is playing, in collaboration with foreign enemy forces and their agents on Syrian soil, to destabilise and weaken Syria", he told Saeed Jalili, who heads Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

But key Damascus and Hezbollah backer Tehran also said on Sunday it welcomed opposition chief Khatib's recent overture for talks with regime representatives.

"It's a good step forward," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said at the Munich Security Conference, where he said he had held a "very good meeting" with Khatib.

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