60 dead in Ivory Coast New Year's crush

AT least 60 people died and dozens more were injured in the Ivory Coast capital Abidjan as crowds stampeded overnight during celebratory New Year's fireworks, rescue workers say.

The head of military rescue workers, Lieutenant Colonel Issa Sako, told public television that "60 people" died and 200 were injured based on a preliminary toll. Another rescue official told AFP the toll was "61 dead and 48 injured".

The rescue official said the injured had been taken to hospitals in Abidjan.

An AFP journalist saw many injured children.

The flow of people coming to the entrance of the city's main stadium to watch the fireworks caused a "very large crush", Sako said. "In the crush, people were walked over and suffocated by the crowd."

Images broadcast by RTI television showed bodies stretched lifeless on the ground. Piles of abandoned shoes and clothing could also be seen at the stadium, where soldiers and police were deployed.

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Man stabbed in throat with sword

A MAN who allegedly stabbed another man in the throat with a sword in southeast Queensland on New Year's Day has been charged by police.

Police said the 34-year-old stabbed the man in the throat with a small sword during an altercation in Pialba about 5.30am (AEST) on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old victim was taken to hospital with a serious cut to his throat and remains in a stable condition.

The alleged attacker was charged with unlawful wounding, police said in a statement.

He is due to front Hervey Bay Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

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Beattie calls for states to be 'abolished'

FORMER Queensland premier Peter Beattie has called for the abolition of the states, saying they could be replaced by larger councils.

Mr Beattie has told The Australian newspaper the states needed to be redefined or abolished given a 2006 High Court decision that upheld the Work Choices laws.

He said in the wake of the federal industrial relations laws the states had become "hand maiden of the Commonwealth".

Mr Beattie is reported as suggesting that larger regional councils could in the long term erode the power of the states and lead to a new structure of government for Australia.

This would reduce duplication and provide better government services, the newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Mr Beattie said one of the reasons he quit state politics was because he thought the future of state governments was "dim".

The call comes after recent urgings from former prime minister Bob Hawke for state governments to be scrapped.

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Rohingya boat people found near Thailand

A BOAT carrying about 70 asylum seekers from Myanmar's (Burma's) beleaguered Rohingya minority has been found adrift in the Andaman Sea off the Thai resort of Phuket.

Thai navy, police, health and other officials have supplied medicine and food and water to the asylum seekers, along with fuel for the boat so it could continue its journey without landing in Thailand.

Thai policy is to not accept boat people but to aid them in reaching a third country.

The passengers include about 10 children.

The exodus of Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladesh, where many are also confined to refugee camps, has become seasonal, peaking in December and January.

Their fate became an international issue in 2008-2009, when predominantly Buddhist Thailand towed broken-down boats crammed with refugees back to sea, where they were cast adrift. Hundreds are believed to have died when the boats later sank.

The latest batch of asylum seekers told officials they had been at sea for 13 days and were headed for Malaysia, Thailand's southern neighbour.

Malaysia is seen as a welcoming destination because its own Muslim population is dominant, though it too considers the Rohingya undesirable.

On Sunday, about 450 asylum seekers from Myanmar landed in Malaysia after a similar boat journey that left one dead, a man who tried to swim to shore.

It was one of the largest groups of Rohingya this past year to reach Malaysia, where about 25,000 Rohingya are registered with the UN refugee agency.

The UN estimates the Rohingya population in Myanmar at 800,000, but the government does not recognise them as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups, and most are denied citizenship.

Rohingya speak a Bengali dialect and resemble Muslim Bangladeshis, with darker skin than most people in Myanmar. They are widely regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and heavily discriminated against. But Bangladesh also refuses to accept them as citizens.

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Melbourne into 2013 with hands and feet

MELBOURNE reached out and grabbed 2013 with hands and feet, as fireworks shaped like digits lit up the skyline in the southern capital.

An estimated 550,000 flooded into the CBD to witness the fireworks display, a 10-minute spectacular that flooded the sky with colour, featuring some unique explosions in the shape of human hands and feet.

The city's tallest buildings were used as launch sites, lighting the entire skyline to the delight of crowds gathered at the Docklands, Federation Square and at Treasury and Flagstaff Gardens.

Earlier on New Year's Eve, the city's family-friendly display at Yarra Gardens played host to about 60,000 people as the imposing backdrop of the MCG was showered with silver, gold and red.

Organisers said those gathered were very well behaved.

Robyn Smith, of Gisborne, northwest of Melbourne, said she had brought her two children to the city for the past three years.

"We just love it - it's just such a great party atmosphere," she told AAP.

"I think the fireworks bring out the little kid in everyone."

Irish sisters Emma and Sophie O'Dowd said they couldn't resist the lure of the New Year's lights and sounds, stopping at Yarra Park to see the fireworks on their way to a dance party.

"It's what it's all about. What a beautiful stage you've got here," Sophie, 22, said.

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Nearly 90% of Syria dead killed in 2012

NEARLY 90 per cent of those who have died in Syria's 21-month conflict were killed in 2012, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

More than 45,000 people have been killed since the conflict broke out in March 2011, but 39,362 of those perished during the past 12 months, the majority civilians, said the Britain-based watchdog.

The civilian toll of 28,113 includes those who have taken up arms against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, it said.

Government troops suffered heavy losses, with 9482 people killed, while 1040 military defectors also were killed in action. Another 727 people in the 2012 toll were unidentified.

"The death toll of the regime forces is actually higher, but the government keeps these figures under wraps," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

On the other hand, he said, "the rebels are discreet about their total losses of life in order to keep up morale, while the deaths of foreign fighters are not announced in their home countries".

The increase in the total number of deaths was due to a fierce escalation in the methods of crackdown by the regime, Abdel Rahman said.

"The year 2012 was the bloodiest and most destructive because all kinds of heavy weapons as well as regime warplanes were used in battle," he told AFP by phone.

The uprising began in March 2011 with peaceful protests inspired by the Arab Spring, but steadily morphed into an armed rebellion following a brutal government crackdown on dissent.

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Bob Brown joins Sea Shepherd board

FORMER Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has joined the board of anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd.

Dr Brown, who retired from the Greens leadership and the Australian Senate last year, will join Sea Shepherd Australia's board of directors early this year, the organisation announced on its website.

Dr Brown, who is a long-time friend of the Sea Shepherd's public face Paul Watson, said he had long admired the group's activism in trying to prevent Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.

"It is an honour to join the Board of Sea Shepherd Australia, whose mission, backed by the majority of Australians, is to protect nearly 1000 whales from the Japanese slaughter fleet this summer," he said.

Mr Watson said he was "immensely proud" to have Dr Brown on board.

"Bob Brown has been a hero of mine for three decades going back to the days of the campaigns to protect the Franklin River," he said.

"What I most admire about Bob is that he is a living example of the three virtues that we need to protect our oceans and our planet - passion, courage, and imagination."

In recent years, the group has been engaged in heated confrontations with the whaling fleet, and were recently ordered by a US Court not to approach the Japanese ships.

The Japanese fleet reportedly left for Antarctica last week.

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US stocks drop as 'cliff' deadline looms

US stocks have opened lower on the last day of the year as Washington politicians appeared still far from a deal hours before the deadline to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Five minutes into trade on Monday the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 33.18 points, or 0.26 per cent, at 12,904.93.

The broad-market S&P 500 fell 2.42 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 1,400.01.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite shed 0.51 points, or 0.02 per cent, at 2,959.80.

After a weekend in which Washington leaders failed to find a last-minute compromise on a fiscal deficit reduction plan, the cliff's mix of steep automatic spending hikes and tax cuts was almost certain to begin taking effect at midnight, pushing the country toward recession.

"Stocks are close to pricing in a lot of this political failure and brinkmanship. If no last-minute deals are cobbled together, this last day of the year will likely bring another round of selling," said Kevin Cook of online broker Zacks.

"But since a new playing field with new incentives exists on the other side of tonight's cliff, the chances to prevent a recession are numerous, manageable, and conceivable."

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European stocks mixed on last day of year

EUROPEAN stock markets diverged on the last trading day of the year, amid fading hopes of a deal to avert the US "fiscal cliff" of sharp tax hikes and spending cuts.

The London and Paris markets operated for only half a day, resulting in thin trading volumes, while the Frankfurt DAX 30 closed for the year on Friday, with Germany's main index gaining 29 per cent in value during 2012.

Frankfurt soared over the course of 2012 after staging a sustained rally late in the year on eurozone debt progress and fresh stimulus moves by the US Federal Reserve, analysts said.

On Monday, London's benchmark FTSE 100 closed with a daily loss of 0.47 per cent at 5,897.81 points, having risen by 5.84 per cent over the entire year.

The Paris CAC 40 gained 0.58 per cent on Monday to 3,641.07 points, close to its highest point for the year after adding 15.23 per cent in 2012.

Madrid however has lost 4.66 per cent since January, to 8,167.5 points, while Milan has climbed by 7.84 per cent to 16,273.38 points, as Spain and Italy battle with national debt strains.

"Despite signs of economic strength in China ... the mood in the markets is rather subdued - all because of the 'fiscal cliff' impasse across the Pond," said Gekko Global Markets trader Anita Paluch, explaining Monday's trading performance.

In foreign exchange deals, the euro fell to $US1.3194 from $US1.3217 late in New York on Friday. Gold prices rose to $US1,666.80 an ounce on the London Bullion Market from $US1,657.50 Friday.

The single currency has risen by about 2.0 per cent in value against the dollar in 2012.

"Given that this time last year, markets were factoring in a euro bust-up and Greek exiting from the eurozone club by end of 2012, the year actually has seen equities and the euro put on a respectable show," Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist at ETX Capital trading group, told AFP.

"European corporates aren't doing too bad either - cash-rich in many cases as they hoarded money during the worst of the crisis. This means they will have to put that money to work in 2013, whether it's through share buybacks, mergers and acquisitions or increasing dividends.

"At the same time, valuations are cheap and the increase in risk appetite this year has been favourable for cyclical stocks like banks, miners, autos and industrials. So looking to 2013, we should see a sense of normality return to markets, as 2012 was still a bit of a rollercoaster," Siddiqi added.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that her country's economy, the continent's biggest, would experience a harder time next year than in 2012 and cautioned too that the eurozone debt crisis was far from over.

In her annual New Year address, Merkel said: "In fact, the economic environment next year will not be easier, but more difficult."

"The crisis is a long way from being beaten."

Although top exporter Germany has managed to hold up to the crisis fairly well, growth has slowed there as well since the beginning of the year.

In Asia meanwhile, stock markets fell in New Year's Eve-shortened trade. However, there was some bright news out of China, where a survey by HSBC showed manufacturing activity hit a 19-month high in December.

And despite Monday's losses, all the region's stock markets ended the year higher, with Bangkok the standout performer, surging almost 36 per cent, while Shanghai was the weakest, adding less than three per cent over the 12 months.

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Fireworks light up foreshore at Gold Coast

CARTOON superheroes shone on a high-rise wall as fireworks lit up the beachfront for the New Year's Eve curtain-raiser at Surfers Paradise.

Thousands of revellers took in the 9pm (AEST) show, a precursor to the main event at midnight, which is billed as one of the biggest fireworks displays in Queensland for New Year's celebrations.

Organisers went with a superheroes theme for this year's family party, hoping to encourage children to attend as their favourite superhero and several little Spidermen and Supermen could be seen among the crowd.

Projected images of superheroes such as the Phantom and Batman were displayed on a high-rise building adjacent to the beach as the fireworks display began.

"It's going to be a big year, bring on 2013," Coomera resident Steve Hoffmann, who brought his wife and son to the display, told AAP.

The event was one of several held up and down the Gold Coast while other centres in Queensland also lit up with their family-friendly displays.

The main event at Brisbane's South Bank had to be delayed by 10 minutes due to a helicopter needing the airspace above the Brisbane river to deliver a patient to nearby hospital but after that it was all systems go.

Crowd numbers were reported to be down for the midnight spectacular, with about 65,000 revellers turning up to the riverbank at South Bank to watch laser light shows and fireworks that launch underwater.

"We've been working on a few surprises," Skylighter Fireworks director Max Brunner told Brisbanetimes.com.

"All I can say is that this year will be the biggest display a Brisbane New Year's Eve has ever had."

Public transport was free of charge to revellers in Queensland's southeast until 5.30am (AEST) on New Year's Day.

Cairns also suffered a drop in numbers due to wet weather during the day.

The heavy rain appears to have headed south leaving clear skies at midnight for revellers in Cairns and Townsville, though other centres such as Mackay and Bowen faced a damp start to 2013.

Up to 50,000 people were thought to have attended the Surfers Paradise festivities.

Police praised crowds for their good behaviour and attitude, with no major incidents taking place and just two arrests made at South Bank before midnight.

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