US considers broad gun sales restrictions

THE administration of President Barack Obama is considering a broad array of measures to curb the nation's gun violence, including more than just a reinstatement of a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, The Washington Post reports.

Citing multiple people involved in the administration's discussions, the newspaper said a working group led by Vice-President Joe Biden is seriously considering several measures: universal background checks for firearm buyers, tracking the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, strengthening mental health checks, and stiffening penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors.

To push these measures through Congress, the White House is developing strategies to work around the National Rifle Association, the report said.

According to the paper, they could include rallying support from Wal-Mart and other gun retailers as well as regular contact with advisers to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an outspoken gun-control advocate.

The proposals are a response to last month's tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, the site of one of the worst school shootings in US history.

On December 14, a disturbed local man, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, killed his mother in their Newtown home before embarking on a horrific shooting spree at a local elementary school.

He blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and shot dead 20 six- and seven-year-old children and six adults with a military-style assault rifle before taking his own life with a handgun as police closed in.

However, the NRA, the most powerful gun lobby in the United States, stands firm against any additional restraints on firearms and ammunition sales - despite a national outcry in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre.

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Assad speech 'beyond hypocritical': UK

BRITAIN has denounced President Bashar al-Assad's speech calling for a conference of national dialogue to end the Syrian conflict as "beyond hypocritical".

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad's first speech to the nation since June was full of "empty promises" and would "fool no one".

In an address to an ecstatic audience in a Damascus theatre on Sunday, Assad described the opposition as "slaves" of the West and outlined a reconciliation plan aimed at resolving a civil war, which according to the UN has claimed more than 60,000 lives.

He called for a conference of national dialogue to be followed by a referendum on a national charter and parliamentary elections.

Assad also called on foreign powers to end their support for rebels seeking to bring down his regime.

Hague took to Twitter to vent his anger about the speech, writing: "AssadSpeech beyond hypocritical. Deaths, violence and oppression engulfing Syria are his own making, empty promises of reform fool no one."

Prime Minister David Cameron earlier reiterated his calls for the Syrian leader to stand down.

"My message to Assad is go," he told BBC TV. "He has the most phenomenal amount of blood on his hands."

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Egypt cabinet reshuffle ahead of IMF talks

EGYPT'S President Mohamed Morsi has reshuffled his cabinet amid a serious economic crisis and ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund for a $US4.8 billion ($A4.6 billion) loan.

Ten new ministers have been sworn into office, including Finance Minister Al-Morsi al-Sayyed Hegazi, whose predecessor Mumtaz al-Said headed the IMF loan negotiations that stalled during a period of intense political unrest in December.

Hegazi, a specialist in Islamic finance, will report to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, who remains in his post.

The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Islamist Morsi emanates, had criticised Said as being too close to the army, which held power during the transitional period after the overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Mohammed Ibrahim, a former police general, replaced Ahmed Gamal al-Din as interior minister, and eight other portfolios all related to the economy changed hands.

The ministers for transport, electricity, domestic development, civil aviation, the environment, communications, supply and domestic trade and parliamentary affairs were all replaced on Sunday.

Morsi announced the reshuffle on December 26, after the ratification by popular vote of a controversial new constitution draft by an Islamist-dominated panel allied to the president.

He said he wanted a cabinet more suited to the economic crisis the country faces.

Egypt's loan request to the IMF, made in August last year, was suspended for a month on December 11, with Cairo saying the postponement was "because of the political situation in the country".

The IMF and Egyptian authorities had provisionally agreed on the 22-month loan - aimed at helping the government bridge financial shortfalls through fiscal 2013-2014 - on November 20.

A top IMF official will visit Egypt on Monday for talks that are likely to focus on the loan.

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Cameron says wants to be UK PM until 2020

DAVID Cameron says he wants to serve as British prime minister until at least 2020 to oversee a range of reforms including a renegotiation of Britain's relationship with Europe.

In a raft of interviews ahead of a mid-term review of the progress of his coalition government on Monday, Cameron also defended a largely unpopular decision to remove child benefit payments from higher earners.

Cameron told the Sunday Telegraph he intended to lead his Conservative Party to victory in the 2015 general election and then serve a full five-year term.

As Cameron rarely speaks about his planned departure date, it has prompted speculation that if re-elected he would stand down halfway through his mandate.

But when asked by the newspaper if he intended to stay on as prime minister until 2020, Cameron said: "I want to fight the next election, win the next election and serve - that is what I want to do."

Pressed on what he would say in a major speech on Britain's strained relationship with the European Union that he is due to give in mid-January, Cameron said his party would offer voters a "real choice" at the 2015 election.

He said any vote on Britain's relationship with the EU would happen in the five years after the election, but he refused to be drawn on whether a poll would include the question whether Britain should remain in the bloc.

"People should be in no doubt that the Conservatives will be offering at the next election a real choice and a real way giving consent to that choice," he said in an interview on BBC TV.

He stressed it was in Britain's economic interest to remain a full member of the EU to enable the country to influence the direction of the single market.

"If we were outside the EU altogether, we'd still be trading with all these EU countries, but we'd have no say over the rules of the market into which we sell," Cameron said.

He said that because the countries using the euro were forced to make changes to their relationship to bolster the currency, Britain was "perfectly entitled" to ask for changes to the conditions of its membership.

On the domestic front, Cameron insisted there would be no U-turn to a move due to kick in on Monday to remove child welfare payments from families in which one parent earns more than STG60,000 ($A93,000).

"This will raise STG2 billion a year. If we don't raise that STG2 billion from that group of people - the better-off 15 per cent in the country - we would have to find someone else to take it from."

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Syrian opposition rejects Assad plan

THE opposition Syrian National Coalition rejects a reconciliation plan outlined by President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, spokesman Walid al-Bunni has told AFP by phone.

"We said at the founding of the National Coalition that we want a political solution, but ... there are now over 60,000 martyrs. The Syrians did not make all those sacrifices in order to bolster this tyrannical regime," he said.

Bunni said Sunday's speech was directed primarily at the "international community, which engaged in a real effort to create a political solution that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people and ends the tyranny of the Assad family regime".

Assad will not accept "any initiative that does not restore stability to his regime and put him at the helm of control", Bunni said.

The president, he added, has "excluded the possibility of any dialogue with the rebels".

"He wants negotiating partners of his own choosing and will not accept any initiative that could meet the aspirations of the Syrian people or ultimately lead to his departure and the dismantling of his regime."

Assad's call to dialogue "excludes those who revolt" and is addressed to "those who did not rise up or who will gladly accept the return of stability despite all the sacrifices made by the Syrian people", Bunni said.

Assad in his speech denounced the opposition as "slaves" of the West and called for national dialogue to draft a new charter and pave the way for legislative polls.

He said the conflict was not one between the government and the opposition but between the "nation and its enemies".

"Just because we have not found a partner, it does not mean we are not interested in a political solution, but that we did not find a partner," he told the audience.

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Doctors say Mandela has 'recovered'

NELSON Mandela has "recovered" from recent surgery and a lung infection for which the 94-year-old spent nearly three weeks in hospital, the South African presidency says, citing his doctors.

He "has recovered from his surgical procedure and the lung infection, his doctors said today", a statement from President Jacob Zuma's office said on Sunday.

"The medical (examination) said president Mandela has made steady progress and that clinically, he continues to improve," it said.

"He had undergone an operation to remove gallstones last month and was also troubled by a recurring lung infection. He continues to receive high care at his Houghton (Johannesburg) home and his daily routine is being gradually re-established."

On Thursday, Mandela's grandson, Mandla Mandela, told AFP the former South African president "is healed and is stronger than before".

The revered former statesman was flown to a Pretoria hospital on December 8 from his childhood home in Qunu.

Mandela was discharged from hospital more than a week ago after his longest stay in hospital since being released from prison in 1990.

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Giant tuna sells for record $1.7m

A monster bluefin tuna sold for a record-breaking $1.7 million in the year's first auction at Japan's Tsukiji fish market, nearly three times the previous high set last year.

The 222-kilogram fish, caught off Japan's northern city of Oma, fetched a winning bid of 155.4 million yen ($1.7 million), said an official at the Tokyo fish market.

The figure dwarfs the previous high of 56.49 million yen paid at last year's inaugural auction at Tsukiji, a huge working market that features on many Tokyo tourist itineraries.

The winning bidder was Kiyoshi Kimura, president of the company that runs the popular Sushi-Zanmai chain, who also won the auction for last year's record-breaking bluefin.

"I wanted to meet expectations of my customers who said they wanted to eat Japan's best tuna again this year," Mr Kimura was quoted by Jiji Press as saying after the intense pre-dawn bidding.

"With this good tuna, I hope to help cheer up Japan," Mr Kimura said.

Based on the price paid - around 700,000 yen per kilogram - a single slice of sushi from the monster fish would cost diners as much as 30,000 yen.

But Mr Kimura plans to sell it at a huge loss, for a more realistic price of up to 398 yen per portion, local media reported.

Bluefin is usually the most expensive fish available at Tsukiji.

Decades of overfishing have seen global tuna stocks crash, leading some Western nations to call for a ban on catching endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Japan consumes three-quarters of the global bluefin catch, a highly prized sushi ingredient known in Japan as "kuro maguro" (black tuna) and dubbed by sushi connoisseurs the "black diamond" because of its scarcity.

A piece of "otoro" or fatty underbelly can cost some 2000 yen at high-end Tokyo restaurants.

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Thousands stuck in airport as China freezes

THOUSANDS of angry passengers were stranded after heavy fog delayed flights at a Chinese airport, as the country was shivered through its coldest weather in almost three decades.

Ten thousand passengers were stuck in Changshui International Airport in the southern Chinese city of Kunming on Saturday morning after thick fog grounded more than 280 flights, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Angry passengers stranded at the airport for more than a day struggled with airline staff, damaging computer equipment belonging to an airline, while police broke up scuffles, a photographer present at the scene late on Friday said.

"The passengers were really furious, they kept going to the service desk to ask for information, but didn't get any answers," the photographer said.

Flights at the airport resumed on Saturday afternoon after the fog lifted, Xinhua said.

China is suffering its coldest winter for 28 years, the news agency on Saturday quoted China's Meteorological Administration as saying.

Temperatures recorded over the country since November have averaged minus 3.8 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit), while northeast China saw average temperatures of minus 15.3 degrees Celsius, its coldest winter for 43 years.

Plunging temperatures trapped around 1000 ships in sea ice off eastern China's Shandong province this week, Xinhua reported, while snowfall delayed more than 140 flights in Beijing last month, the China Daily said.

An annual Ice and Snow Festival in the northeastern city of Harbin, famous for its enormous ice-sculptures, is scheduled to open today, as temperatures in the city fall below minus 24 degrees Celsius.

Temperatures in northern China are expected to pick up next week, although parts of south China will continue to experience snow, Xinhua reported.

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Trial begins for Indian rape accused

AN INDIAN public prosecutor says there is strong forensic evidence against five men accused of gang-raping a student in New Delhi on a moving bus as their trial begins in a city court.

A district magistrate hearing the case took note of the charges including rape and murder overnight, signalling the start of the trial, and ordered the men to appear before her for the first time on Monday.

"We have filed all the evidence," Rajiv Mohan, additional public prosecutor, told the court in Saket in the south of the city.

"The blood of the victim tallied with the stains found on the clothes of the accused," he added, saying that a DNA test had been conducted by the police.

He also said that police had recovered possessions stolen from the victim and her boyfriend, who were thrown out of the vehicle at the end of their ordeal.

As well as the forensic and other evidence, the woman's boyfriend has testified to police and has reportedly identified the culprits.

Mohan said that the woman had died last weekend of "septicemia (blood poisoning) from multi-organ failure due to multi-organ injury" after she was repeatedly raped and violated with an iron bar.

Presiding magistrate Namrita Aggarwal confirmed she had "taken cognisance" of the charges, adding that this meant the trial had begun.

"They (the suspects) will be produced in court on Monday," she added.

The men, aged from 19 to 35, had been expected to be tried in a different fast-track court amid a clamour for their conviction and warnings from the chief justice that due processes must be followed.

A sixth suspect arrested by police is believed to be a minor, but he is undergoing a bone test to check his age.

Executions are rare in India, but can be sanctioned for the "rarest of rare" crimes.

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Merkel kicks off German campaigning

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel is highlighting Germany's economic strength and dismissing worries that her party could be dragged down by its struggling coalition partner as she kicks off campaigning for an important state election.

Mrs Merkel's centre-right coalition faces a tough battle to extend its 10-year hold on Lower Saxony state in the Jan. 20 election.

Polls suggest the centre-left opposition has a good chance of winning - giving it a significant boost ahead of September national elections in which Mrs Merkel will seek a third term.

Mrs Merkel, speaking after her conservative Christian Democrats' leadership met in Lower Saxony, criticised opposition plans for tax increases.

Mrs Merkel's party leads polls in Lower Saxony and nationally but its junior partner, the pro-market Free Democratic Party, is very weak.

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