UK PM makes unannounced Afghan visit

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron has made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, meeting troops in the southern province of Helmand as the NATO military coalition hands responsibility over to local forces.

The British embassy in Kabul confirmed Cameron's trip to Camp Bastion as Britain marked Armed Forces Day on Saturday.

Britain has about 7900 soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

Cameron visited troops on the front line as a senior British commander said talks with the Taliban should have been attempted a decade ago.

General Nick Carter, deputy commander of the NATO-led coalition, told The Guardian that it would have been more successful to approach the Taliban in 2002 after they were knocked from power.

Speaking in Lashkar Gah in Afghanistan, Cameron told Sky News: "I think you can argue about whether the settlement we put in place after 2001 could have been better arranged. Of course you can make that argument. Since I became prime minister in 2010 I have been pushing all the time for a political process and that political process is now under way.

"But at the same time I know that you cannot bank on that, which is why we have built up the Afghan army, built up the Afghan police, supported the Afghan government so after our troops have left, and they will be leaving under the program we have set out, this country shouldn't be a haven for terrorists."

The British prime minister told reporters: "We want a political solution as well as making sure we have a security solution. What we have done in Afghanistan is we came here to stop it being used as a base for terrorist activities. That has been and is successful.

"What we need to do is build up the Afghan armed forces and at the same time make sure that the politics of Afghanistan enable everyone in Afghanistan to play a role in the future of their country.

"We are making some progress there as well."

Cameron announced that funding from bankers' Libor fines would be used to create a permanent memorial to the 444 British personnel killed in Afghanistan.

He said: "I can announce today that we will be taking more money off the Libor fines and putting it in to military charities including building a permanent memorial at the Staffordshire Arboretum so that we can always remember and future generations can remember those that fell and died here in Afghanistan."

Cameron said the political process should mean "those people prepared to give up the bomb, the bullet, can actually be part of that process, part of that future Afghanistan".

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Crowds set to farewell Sydney monorail

Large crowds are expected for the monorail's final lap as Sydney says goodbye to the steel giant. Source: AAP

LARGE crowds are expected to head to Sydney's monorail on Sunday to witness the steel giant's last spin around town.

The Sydney character will take its final ride at 9.30pm on Sunday, after a quarter of a century trundling above people's heads.

Labelled as a "fad" and a "white elephant" by NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian on Friday, ticket sales have increased leading up to its farewell.

"In the last three weeks we've seen a 15 per cent increase in customers, compared to this time last year," a NSW Transport spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.

"With the final weekend of monorail operations, along with school holidays, we're expecting very large crowds."

A single loop ticket will be available for those wanting to get a last look at the monorail.

All sales will go to five charities and a ballot will be drawn to select the final people riding the monorail.

Ticket sales will stop at 8.30pm with the final passenger loop to take place from 9.30pm for the ballot winners.

Workers will begin dismantling the monorail, with almost all of its 1500 tonnes of steel and 400 cubic metres of concrete to be recycled.

However, two monorail carriages and 10 metres of the track will be preserved in the Sydney's Powerhouse Museum in the short term.

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ALP and Coaltion neck and neck: poll

THE coalition and the ALP led by new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd are neck and neck in the lead up to the federal election, a poll shows.

On a two-party preferred result, the Labor Party would receive 49 per cent of votes compared to the coalition's 51 per cent, according to the first national Galaxy poll since Rudd's return as prime minister.

The poll, published in Sunday's News Ltd newspapers, also shows most voters think Mr Rudd will be a better prime minister than Mr Abbott, scoring 51 per cent compared to Mr Abbott's 34 per cent.

Mr Rudd lifted Labor's primary vote by six points, to 38 per cent.

Voters backed the ALP's decision to replace Julia Gillard with Mr Rudd, with 57 per cent saying it was the right move.

The poll also revealed Bill Shorten won the support of the public for knifing two prime ministers, with most believing he made the right choices.

A total of 52 per cent of voters backed his decision to dump Ms Gillard, while 30 per cent believed Mr Shorten did the wrong thing.

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Rudd to promote more women to cabinet

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd intends to promote a record number of women into his cabinet, which will be sworn in on Monday.

Mr Rudd, who regained the leadership after toppling Australia's first woman prime minister Julia Gillard last week, will add three new women to the cabinet.

Overall, News Ltd reports, 11 women will be in the overall ministry up from nine now.

Victorians Jacinta Collins and Catherine King and Tasmanian Julie Collins will become cabinet ministers.

"These women will be first-class contributors to our cabinet decision making," he told News Ltd.

"They join Penny Wong, the first woman to be leader of the government in the Senate, Jenny Macklin and Tanya Plibersek, who have all demonstrated their strong credentials in the past."

Senator Collins is expected to become the minister for mental health, Ms King will take on the regional Australia portfolio while Ms Collins will hold the portfolio of housing, homeless and status of women.

AAP jl

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Obama meets family of ailing hero Mandela

US President Barack Obama has met the family of his "inspiration" Nelson Mandela, but was unable to visit the anti-apartheid legend who remains critically ill in hospital.

Despite tentative signs of an improvement in the condition of the father of multi-racial South Africa, Obama decided not to visit Mandela during his visit for fear of disturbing his "peace and comfort".

Instead, Obama met privately with some relatives of the revered leader including two daughters and several grandchildren and spoke by telephone with Mandela's wife Graca Machel.

"I expressed my hope that Madiba draws peace and comfort from the time that he is spending with loved ones, and also expressed my heartfelt support for the entire family as they work through this difficult time," Obama said, using Mandela's clan name.

Machel said she had "drawn strength from the support" offered by the Obama family.

"I am humbled by their comfort and messages of strength and inspiration which I have already conveyed to Madiba."

Speaking earlier in Pretoria, where 94-year-old Mandela lay fighting for his life in a nearby hospital, Obama praised the "moral courage" of South Africa's first black president.

"The struggle here against apartheid, for freedom, Madiba's moral courage, his country's historic transition to a free and democratic nation, has been a personal inspiration to me. It has been an inspiration to the world," Obama said after talks with President Jacob Zuma.

"The outpouring of love that we've seen in recent days shows that the triumph of Nelson Mandela and this nation speaks to something very deep in the human spirit - the yearning for justice and dignity that transcends boundaries of race and class and faith and country."

Obama said before arriving he did not need "a photo-op" with Mandela, whom he meet briefly in 2005, and the White House on Saturday ruled out a meeting between the two men.

"Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the hospital," the official said.

Obama's three-nation tour is aimed at changing perceptions that he has neglected Africa since his election in 2008, while also countering China's growing economic influence in the resource-rich continent.

But it has been overshadowed by the illness of his fellow Nobel peace laureate, who has been in intensive care for more than three weeks.

Zuma said Mandela remained in "critical but stable" condition, expressing hope that he would improve.

Welcoming the US president to South Africa on the second leg of his tour, he said Mandela and Obama were "bound by history" as the first black leaders of their respective nations.

"You both carry the dreams of millions of people in Africa," Zuma said.

But the US leader was not greeted so warmly by all South Africans. Riot police fired stun grenades at anti-Obama protesters in the township of Soweto, once a flashpoint in the anti-apartheid struggle.

A visit by Obama on Sunday to Mandela's former jail cell on Robben Island, off Cape Town in particular is expected to be laden with symbolism.

Obama will then visit former Archbishop Desmond Tutu's youth foundation HIV centre before delivering the central speech of his African tour at the University of Cape Town.

Mandela has been hospitalised four times since December.

The man once branded a terrorist by the United States and Britain won South Africa's first fully democratic elections in 1994, forging a path of racial reconciliation during his single term as president, before taking up a new role as a roving elder statesman and leading AIDS campaigner.

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Qld man killed in gunpowder blast

A MAN has been killed and two other injured after an explosion on a far north Queensland rural property in far north Queensland.

Police say the explosion occurred about 9.40pm (AEST) on Saturday at Arriga, west of Mareeba.

It's believed the men were disposing of expired gunpowder, the ABC online reports.

A 58-year-old man died due to the blast, while a 58-year-old man and a 33-year-old man were injured and taken to hospital.

"Initial information suggests the cause of the explosion is not suspicious, but related to the burn off of a substance on the property," Queensland police said in a statement.

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