Portuguese unemployment hits record 17.7%

PORTUGAL'S unemployment rate rose sharply in the first quarter of 2013 to a record high 17.7 per cent from 16.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, data from the national statistics institute INE shows.

For the whole of 2013 the government has forecast a rate of 18.2 per cent and 18.5 per cent for next year as the effects of recession and austerity measures take hold.

The record high comes as a new government spending package, announced by the centre-right government last week, foresees the slashing of 30,000 public sector jobs out of a total 700,000.

Civil servants are also to work 40 hours per week, compared with 35 at present and are to be eligible for full retirement at the age of 66, one year later than now.

The new terms are aimed at ensuring continued aid payments from a package worth 78 billion euros ($A101.71 billion) granted by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in May 2011.

According to the INE data, 4.4 million people currently hold jobs in Portugal out of a total population of about 10.5 million.

In 2012, the economy contracted by 3.2 per cent and is forecast to shrink another 2.3 per cent in 2013.

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Kenya asks UN to drop ICC charges

KENYA has written to the UN Security Council seeking to scrap the international crimes against humanity trials for President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Vice President William Ruto, according to a letter seen on Thursday.

Kenyatta, 51, voted into power in March elections, is to go on trial in July at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for crimes against humanity relating to post-election violence in 2007-08.

Ruto, 46, faces three counts of crimes against humanity for his role in deadly violence.

"What this delegation is asking for is not deferral," Kenya's ambassador to the UN, Macharia Kamau, wrote in a letter to the council seen by AFP.

"What this delegation is asking for is for the immediate termination of the case at The Hague."

The letter, dated May 2 and stamped confidential, is the first such official request for the cases to be dropped.

However, while the security council can ask for a case to be deferred for a year, it does not have the authority to order the ICC drop a case completely.

Kenya, however, appealed to "friendly nations to use their good offices and prevail upon the International Criminal Court to reconsider the continued process".

Some 1,100 people died in bloodshed after the 2007 elections over allegations of vote rigging, shattering Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability.

What began as political riots quickly turned into ethnic killings and reprisal attacks, plunging Kenya into its worst wave of violence since independence in 1963.

The letter warned that continuing with the trials would risk destabilising Kenya.

"Kenyans... spoke with a loud, clear, concise voice when they overwhelmingly elected Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto as president and deputy president," it said.

"It is obvious that their absence from the country may undermine the prevailing peace and any resultant insecurity may spill over to the neighbouring countries."

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Technology changes how we chat to mum

TECHNOLOGY is changing the way Australians communicate with their mums, with more using social media and video calls to stay in touch, new research suggests.

But no matter what method is used, it seems one thing will never change - we still call mum for help and advice.

In the run-up to Mother's Day, Telstra released data showing that half of all Australians chat to their mums once a week and 20 per cent do so every day.

But the evidence suggests more are using apps like Skype.

"These days more mums are happy to be called on their mobile for the weekly catch up and increasingly they are enjoying video calls too," Telstra's Inese Kingsmill said.

"In fact, 10 per cent of the mums we surveyed like receiving video calls from their kids and grandkids.

"Phoning home will take on a new meaning as technology advances."

Many of the calls - no matter what the medium - are made out of desperation rather than kindness.

That's particularly true among younger people, with 13 per cent of those aged between 18-25 only telephoning mum when they want something, according to Telstra's research.

Mums aged between 40-44 are the least responsive to these sorts of calls, with seven per cent saying they'd ignore them.

"I'm sure many mums can relate to the urgent phone call from their kids wanting to know how to remove red wine stains from the carpet or how to get lumps out of the gravy," Ms Kingsmill added.

Facebook said 27 per cent of Australians aged between 13-18 were connected to their mums via the social networking site.

That's higher than in many other countries, including France (15.5 per cent) and Brazil (13.5 per cent).

Fifteen per cent of Australians have friended their mum on Facebook, listing the relationship in the "family" section on their profiles.

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Remote students less likely to reach uni

HIGH school students from remote and disadvantaged Queensland schools are less likely to be accepted into university.

Year 12 completion rates are almost universal across the state, with close to 100 per cent of students at most state and Christian schools offered a place in higher education.

The results are positive at schools in Brisbane and larger regional cities.

But a closer look at the Queensland Studies Authority data shows pockets of disadvantage in remote areas, and at schools catering to students from indigenous and troubled backgrounds.

Griffith University Dean of Learning and Teaching, Professor Glenn Finger, says the results show the need for the Queensland government to sign up to the federal government's Gonski education reforms, which allocate more funding to disadvantaged and public schools.

"Those negotiations between the federal government and the state government are probably highly politicised, but underneath it the Gonski reform does provide a roadmap for addressing the resourcing needs of different schools that's evident in this data," he told AAP.

"The funding formula for resourcing needs improvement so that the resources actually go to those areas of need."

In central Queensland, Blackall State School had a 100 per cent year 12 completion rate but only 67 per cent of students were successful in securing a place at university or other tertiary study.

The result was even more dire at the small Aboriginal and Islander Independent Community School in Brisbane, where only 60 per cent finished year 12 and no one was accepted for further study.

The Arethusa College at Deception Bay, north of Brisbane, which caters for a small number of disengaged students had even worse results, with only one third completing year 12 and no one going on to higher education.

While most religious schools produced good academic outcomes, the Australian International Islamic College helped just 30 per cent of students finish year 12, while only 56 per cent of tertiary study applicants were successful.

Brisbane Christian College in Salisbury produced another surprise, with just 68 per cent completing year 12.

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Shark kills Frenchman on Reunion Island

SAINT-DENIS, France, May 8 AFP - A French honeymooner has been attacked and killed by a shark while surfing not far from the beach on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion, authorities say.

The 36-year-old was in the sea off the popular beach of Brisants de Saint-Gilles when a shark charged at him twice, prompting a nearby swimmer to raise the alert when he saw blood on the water, the local prefecture said.

Lifeguards jumped in the water to fetch the victim, who had lost a lot of blood and was in cardiac and respiratory arrest. They brought him back to the beach but were unable to revive him.

The shark had bitten the surfer on the arm and on the thigh. His wife was on the beach when the attack happened, and is being treated for shock, authorities said.

The deadly shark attack was the first this year on the island, where three people were killed by sharks in the past two years.

Sharks are not man-eaters, but sometimes mistake humans for their natural prey, like seals or tortoises, and at other times hurt surfers as they "mouth" them out of curiosity, experts say.

Last year, 78 shark attacks were reported around the world, of which eight were fatal.

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Six killed in clashes at Afghan protest

AT least six people have been killed during clashes with police at a protest in southern Afghanistan, officials say.

There were differing accounts of what happened.

Authorities said most of the dead were Taliban insurgents who infiltrated what they described as the latest in a series of protests against alleged border intrusions by the Pakistan military.

During the demonstration Taliban gunmen opened fire, targeting government buildings and killing two drivers on a highway where hundreds of people had gathered, Kandahar province police chief General Abdul Raziq told AFP.

Raziq said police fired back at the gunmen and killed four of them.

"People were demonstrating against Pakistan but the Taliban turned it violent," he said. "The police had to shoot."

The Kandahar province media office said three drivers had been killed by attackers and eight Taliban had been shot dead by police in Maiwand district.

"There were some armed people who... opened fire from among the demonstrators," it said.

Local residents told AFP the protest was against night raids on homes by joint US-Afghan forces. A Taliban spokesman said none of its fighters was involved.

A doctor in Maiwand hospital said on condition of anonymity that five bodies and 20 wounded victims had been brought in.

On Monday more than 2,000 people demonstrated and chanted "Death to Pakistan!" on the outskirts of Kabul in response to the border dispute.

Around 3,000 students held a similar rally in the eastern province of Khost that borders Pakistan.

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Architect of Putin political system quits

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has dismissed his influential deputy prime minister Vladislav Surkov, credited with designing the country's notorious political system.

The Kremlin said in a statement that Surkov had left his post voluntarily, but analysts and observers said the former Kremlin grey cardinal had been forced out amid a growing rift between Putin's Kremlin and the government.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalia Timakova told AFP that Surkov tendered his resignation on April 26.

His departure comes amid what observers describe as signs of growing infighting among Kremlin elites during Putin's controversial third term and an ongoing probe of a high-tech fund backed by Surkov.

Putin's spokesman said Surkov's departure should not be seen in connection with the investigation at the Skolkovo fund.

Instead, he suggested that the deputy prime minister quit because of the government's poor implementation of Putin's election promises.

"It is related to the priority topic and the high-priority task of implementing presidential decrees," Dmitry Peskov told the Kommersant FM radio.

Surkov declined to talk about his future plans with the media, telling Kommersant that he will explain it "when the time is right."

Surkov, 48, had served as deputy prime minister after being dismissed from the post of first deputy Kremlin chief of staff in a shakeup in December 2011 that coincided with huge opposition protests that shook Russia that winter.

He has been considered the top ideologue of Putin's domestic political strategy who oversaw political parties in parliament, electoral campaigns and the tightly controlled media.

He worked in the Kremlin administration from 1999 before his unexpected transition to the government seen at the time as the Kremlin's reaction to the mass anti-Putin protests in 2011.

He is known for coining the term "sovereign democracy" to describe Russia's tightly controlled political system and was once called the "Kremlin puppeteer" by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.

The departure of Surkov, who had for the past year and a half been in charge of modernising the Russian economy, comes as Russian investigators are probing the Skolkovo hi-tech fund where Surkov sits on the supervisory board.

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Austrian gets 29-million-euro tax bill

AN Austrian man has gotten the shock of his life, receiving a tax bill for more than 29 million euros ($A37.5 million).

The 22-year-old, identified as Agadir B, has told the Heute daily he got the bill after filing his tax return for 2008.

That year he earned about 600 euros a month as a trainee but the bill demand that he pay one per cent of the total amount owed immediately, or 290,000 euros.

"I completely flipped out," he told the paper.

"My mum nearly had a nervous breakdown."

His mother even phoned the tax office to query the bill and was told: "You don't have a discussion at the checkout ... you just pay," he said.

However, a second letter later came through from the tax office, declaring the first one void and apologising for the "technical error".

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Rescued woman and mum yet to speak

THE mother of one of three women held captive for about a decade at a home in the US says she is yet to speak to her daughter.

However, Barbara Knight, mother of Cleveland kidnap victim Michelle, says she hopes she knows she loves her and missed her the whole time.

Mrs Knight has told NBC's Today show that when her daughter disappeared aged 20 in 2002, police and she thought she maybe just didn't want to see her family anymore.

She says her daughter's child had been removed from the home just before her disappearance.

She says she thought Michelle vanished because she was upset about "the baby".

She says she knows her daughter is likely angry at the world "because she probably thought she'd never be found".

Mrs Knight adds that she hopes their past tension can heal, and she wants to take her daughter back to Florida, where she now lives.

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Imran stays in hospital, halts campaigning

DOCTORS say they expect Pakistani politician Imran Khan to make a full recovery despite fracturing his spine at a campaign rally, as his party seeks to capitalise on a sympathy vote.

The retired cricket star and head of the Pakistan Movement for Justice (PTI) suffered several fractured vertebrae and a broken rib on Tuesday when he fell from a lift raising him onto the stage at a rally in the city of Lahore.

Medical staff have ordered the 60-year-old to remain immobile in bed, throwing into doubt the prospect that he will address in person a final rally set to wrap up his high-octane campaign for office in Saturday's election.

The man tipped to win the polls, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, suspended campaigning on Wednesday in tribute to Khan.

His fall was the latest dramatic twist to an election campaign that has been overshadowed by a series of attacks on politicians and political parties which have killed 113 people since mid-April, according to an AFP tally.

The Pakistani Taliban have condemned the polls as un-Islamic and directly threatened the outgoing secular Pakistan People's Party and its main coalition partners, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party.

On Wednesday a bomb targeted a candidate from the Awami National Party (ANP), killing two people and wounding three others in the northwestern tribal district of Bajaur, a local official said.

In another attack, unconnected to the elections, a suicide bomber killed three people and wounded 23 outside a police station in the northwestern district of Bannu, police said.

Aides said Khan would still address a final election rally on Thursday, even if it has to be from hospital.

Television footage showed him flat on his back in hospital wearing a neck brace, and looking pale and groggy after his fall.

Doctors have advised at least two days' rest but say he is in full control of his limbs and bodily functions and expected to make a full recovery.

Saturday's vote will be a democratic milestone in a country ruled for half its history by the military. It will be the first time a civilian government has served a full term and handed over to another through the ballot box.

It remains unclear whether a wave of sympathy for Khan will improve his poll prospects. Most commentators expect him to do well enough to become a strong opposition but not to form a government.

Khan, who has only ever won one seat, led an electrifying campaign until his fall, galvanising the middle class and young people in what he has called a "tsunami" of support that will propel him into office.

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