French-led troops in Mali seize airport

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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China 'must modernise' before global role

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Suicide attack kills 'several' in Kunduz

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Former premier leads in Czech vote

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

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

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

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

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

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NATO missile defence in Turkey operational

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Kyrgyzstan tougher on bride-kidnapping

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Number of new Aussies up on Australia Day

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

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

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

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

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

Queensland will naturalise the most people - almost 5000.

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

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

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

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

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

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Russia backs nationwide 'anti-gay' bill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Egypt police fire tear gas in Alexandria

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Obama picks new chief of staff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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