THE opposition accused Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood of attempted "vote rigging" in today's referendum on a new constitution for Egypt.
The National Salvation Front, in a statement, expressed "deep concern... over the number of irregularities and violations in the holding of the referendum," charging it "points to a clear desire for vote rigging by the Muslim Brotherhood."
SOUTH Africa's presidency says Nelson Mandela has undergone successful surgery to remove gallstones.
The presidency said the 94-year-old Mandela underwent the surgery overnight. The presidency said Mr Mandela's doctors wanted to treat a recurrent lung infection before putting him through the surgery.
The statement said: "The procedure was successful and Madiba is recovering." It referred to Mandela by his clan name as a sign of affection.
Mr Mandela has been in hospital since Dec. 8.
Mr Mandela is revered for being a leader of the struggle against racist white rule in South Africa. He served one five-year term as president before retiring from public life.
THE bodies of 20 young children and six adults massacred by a lone gunman in a quiet US town were finally removed from the blood-soaked school, police said.
The formal identification of the victims in one of America's worst mass shootings marked a new chapter for horrified residents of Newtown, Connecticut, where Friday morning a 20-year-old man walked in with at least two powerful pistols and shot everyone he could find in two rooms of the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
"By early this morning, they were able to positively identify all of the victims and make formal identification to all of the families of the victims," said Connecticut State Police spokesman Lieutenant Paul Vance.
The removal of bodies, which were initially left for investigators, "has been accomplished," he said on CBS television. "That was done overnight."
The gunman shot dead 18 children inside the school and two more died of their wounds shortly afterwards. Six adults, including the school principal, perished before the gunman died - apparently in a suicide.
Authorities offered little clue as to the motive for the shootings in Newtown, a wooded and picturesque small town northeast of New York City.
Hours after the shooting, hundreds of people gathered for a vigil, the crowd filling the church to capacity and spilling outside its doors.
"This is a kind of community, when things like that happen, they really pull together," the priest, Robert Weiss, said during the Mass.
A letter from Pope Benedict XVI was also read during the service.
Pope Benedict XVI sent his condolences to the community, in a letter read aloud at a vigil in Newtown Friday evening.
The pope "has asked me to convey his heartfelt grief and the assurance of his closeness in prayer to the victims and their families, and to all affected by the shocking event," Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said in the letter.
"In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy he asks God our Father to console all those who mourn and to sustain the entire community," the letter said.
David Connors, whose triplets were at the school during the shooting but were unharmed, said he was still horrified.
"It's hard. I've never imagined a thing like that could happen here."
"Our faith is tested," state Governor Dan Malloy told the congregants.
"Not just necessarily our faith in God, but our faith in community, and who we are, and what we collectively are."
Earlier the governor had said "evil visited this community today."
US President Barack Obama, wiping away tears and struggling to maintain his composure, said he was aghast over the tragedy.
State police spokesman Vance said just one injured person survived, indicating that the gunman was unusually accurate or methodical in his fire.
The majority of killings, which began at around 9:30am local time, "took place in one section of the school, in two rooms," Vance added. The children were aged between five and 10, officials said.
The killer was identified as Adam Lanza, 20. Initially, police told media they thought the murderer was his brother, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, whose identity card had been found on the shooter's dead body.
The surviving brother was in custody and being questioned, according to US television reports.
Many news outlets said another victim found in a home in Newtown - the 28th body in the day's bloodshed - was the shooter's mother, who was a teacher at Sandy Hook and whom he had killed before driving to the school.
Mr Obama went on national television to express his "overwhelming grief." He ordered flags to be lowered to half mast.
And there were similar statements of grief and shock around the world.
The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, spoke of his "deep shock and horror," the Queen sent a message to Mr Obama in which she said she was "deeply shocked and saddened," and French President Francois Hollande expressed his condolences to Mr Obama, saying the news "horrified me."
Of all US campus shootings, the toll was second only to the 32 murders in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech university.
The latest number far exceeded the 15 killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which triggered a fierce but inconclusive debate about the United States' relaxed gun control laws.
However, the White House has scotched any suggestion that the politically explosive subject would be quickly reopened.
Environment Department Director Wildlife Rebecca Williams confirmed nine out of 17 applications for lethal Damage Mitigation Permits (DMP) had been approved. Source: The Courier-Mail
THE first shots against Queensland's flying fox population were fired this weekend with fed up farmers finally given the all clear to shoot to kill.
Queensland authorities have approved nine shoot-to-kill licences out of 17 applications for lethal damage mitigation permits to deter the night-time raids of flying foxes on fruit growers across the state.
From the apple orchards of Stanthorpe, to the citrus trees of Bundaberg, to the lychee plantations of the deep north, bat lovers claim a modern "yippee shoot" is the new battlefront in wildlife conservation.
Farmers retort: "Shooting is a last resort".
Mostly they use lights, noise, netting, electric shock, poison and hot chilli spray to ward off hungry hordes of bats - one colony of thousands of flying foxes can strip a $100,000 harvest bare in a few nights.
Successful applicants of lethal permits must use have previously used "prescribed methods" such as netting or sound to deter flying foxes.
Lethal permit holders said yesterday how they did not want to be photographed for this story because they felt it would make them a target for "green hysteria".
"We don't want to end up in the cross hairs," said fruit producer Derek Foley, of Electra near Bundaberg.
"It'll be us with the bullseye on our heads.
Frosty Mango Farm Manager Robert Mizzi sprays hot chilli on lychees and mango to deter bats, better then shooting them.
"But we do believe in our right to farm, to feed the nation, and shoot the odd flying fox to protect our crop."
Mr Foley has 14,000-odd trees of lychee, avocado, mango and lemon.
Full canopy netting covers the trees, gas guns make a sound barrier, and six 18m high towers with 24 metal halide 2000-watt lights light up the farm "like the Sydney Cricket Ground".
Shooting is the final option to "take out scout bats" he said.
Under the permit, producers are strictly capped per motnh to take down: 30 black flying foxes; 30 little red flying foxes; 20 grey-headed flying foxes; and 15 spectacled flying foxes.
Conservationists believe the permits will still put some species at risk.
"This is barbaric," said Bat Conservation and Rescue Queensland president Louise Saunders.
"These permits are a sick joke. It is near impossible to get a clean shot on a bat at night," said the Brisbane-based animal carer.
She believes wounded and winged creatures will be left to die an agonising death in the forests.
"Bats are not some ravenous, rabid, violent monster out there to eat you. They are beautiful, clever, loving mammals.
"This'll be one big yippee shoot."
The Newman Government overturned a four-year ban on killing flying foxes earlier this year, opening the permit system in September. In the 1920s, organised hunts killed thousands of bats a night.
Alf Poefinger, 73, a lychee and mango grower of Mutarnee, north of Townsville, prefers to use hot chilli spray over the messy and expensive practice of shooting.
"Bats bite or lick the hot chilli on the fruit, it does not kill them, but they don't like it," said Mr Poefinger.
"It is definitely cheaper than netting and not as vicious as shooting them."
Fellow Mutarnee grower Martin Joyce was the first producer in Queensland to be granted a lethal permit.
He said when the bats come in their thousands they are very hard to control.
"Now, if we do get a great influx, we have the permit."
Environment Department Director Wildlife Rebecca Williams confirmed nine out of 17 applications for lethal DMPs had been approved.
But they were always willing to consider applications on non-lethal methods of managing flying foxes, she said.
What do you think? Email yournews@thesundaymail.com.au or write to us at GPO Box 130, Brisbane, 4001.
peter.michael@news.com.au
Police computer boffins are developing software described as like a "Google Maps of crime" that will for the first time show offences street by street. Source: The Courier-Mail
QUEENSLANDERS will get a new perspective on crime in their neighbourhoods thanks to a ground-breaking police mapping project.
Police computer boffins are developing software described as like a "Google Maps of crime" that will for the first time show offences street by street.
But there are no plans to include crime-rate information that would allow comparisons of neighbourhoods.
From next year anyone will be able to enter a street address, postcode or police division into a special search engine and compare the number of reported offences. The system, which will be free to access, is likely to show crimes ranging from assault and burglary to car theft using user-friendly icons to represent each type of offence.
Users will be able to customise their own maps showing neighbourhood crime hot spots and to track offending over time, with up to 15 years' worth of information being made available.
Sensitive crimes such as sex offences and breaches of domestic violence orders are likely to be aggregated with other crime types, such as assault, so they can't be associated with a particular location.
The Queensland Police Service is using data that records the location of each offence, but is working on ways to show crimes by street only so as to avoid breaching people's privacy. QPS said it would consider including crime rates at a future date.
The data will be updated regularly, but there is likely to be a time lag while police verify the figures.
The project is the product of about 18 months' work, triggered by pressure from Queensland's Information Commissioner and the media.
A spokesman for Emergency Services Minister Jack Dempsey said the program would help homebuyers and businesspeople make informed decisions about different locations.
"We want to give everyone an opportunity to look at the crime stats," he said.
"There's no reason to keep it secret or to do it just once a year."
The aim was to have the project go live by February but the State's Privacy Commissioner would be consulted first, the spokesman said.
It will be the first time police have published "divisional" level crime stats, breaking the figures down by suburb.
Police have kept more detailed divisional numbers to themselves, with the QPS last year saying it could not release the divisional statistics because they had not been "verified" by their statistics unit.
A QPS spokeswoman said The Sunday Mail's and The Courier-Mail's use of Right To Information laws to obtain the neighbourhood statistics two years ago had been the initial trigger for the project.
It also comes as the Newman Government makes commitments to greater transparency.
Its moves so far include putting a selection of statistics, including 15-years' worth of Statewide crime numbers and rates, on a pilot website, http://data.qld.gov.au.
In NSW residents can access data by suburb that is collected by an independent body.
FLASHPOINT: The Indooroopilly gym where Allison Baden-Clay came face-to-face with her husband's lover Toni McHugh, and Ms McHugh's witness statement detailing the meeting. Source: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
FACE to face in a suburban gym, Allison Baden-Clay and her husband's mistress Toni McHugh stared mutely at each other.
The pair had rarely crossed paths before the chance encounter, which came just weeks after Mrs Baden-Clay found out about her husband's affair. Court documents, lodged as part of accused killer Gerard Baden-Clay's failed bail application on Friday, reveal how both women were lost for words.
"Nothing was said, we just looked at one another," Ms McHugh says in one of four signed police statements.
After the encounter, both women vented their anger on Baden-Clay in text messages.
"I may have used the term that Allison was a lady of leisure in the text message," Ms McHugh told police.
"Gerard never showed me or told me what she had said, just that she had sent him an abusive text message."
Three alleged affairs, including a relationship with a woman named for the first time as Jackie Crane, and their impact on his troubled marriage are also detailed.
Baden-Clay maintains his innocence on charges of murdering his wife.
Defence barrister Peter Davis SC claimed at the bail hearing the Crown case was weak and Mrs Baden-Clay may have taken her own life.
Mr Davis told the court a witness saw a woman walking in the Brookfield area at around 5.30am on the day she disappeared and an autopsy found high levels of her anti-depressant medication that could indicate suicide.
In her statements to police, Ms McHugh details how Baden-Clay continued to contact her after he reported his wife missing from their Brookfield home on April 20.
Baden-Clay had allegedly committed to leaving his wife for Ms McHugh, but their complicated relationship unravelled after the disappearance. In one frosty phone call with Baden-Clay on May 27, Ms McHugh confronted him about another affair.
"The conversation did not go well. When I answered the phone, Gerard said, 'It's me'. I think I went straight into, 'I know what you've been doing. How could you do that to me?'
"Gerard admitted that he had been in a relationship with Jackie Crane and another woman. I basically asked him why I should give him any time to explain. Gerard agreed that he shouldn't have any time to explain.
"Gerard then told me that he loved me. He again said that he did not know what went wrong there and that he believed the police would find the killer," she said.
He told her he would phone her at work the next day, but didn't make the call.
Ms McHugh, a 41-year-old mother of two, admitted to the affair in her first statement to police the day after Baden-Clay reported his wife missing.
She told police how she was in a long-term relationship when she first met Baden-Clay through the sale of her home around 2006. As Century 21 Westside principal, Baden-Clay was the agent selling her home and hired her as a property consultant in April 2007.
"When I first started working with Gerard, there was definitely chemistry for me. I admired him. I was attracted to him," she told police.
After the affair allegedly started in August 2008, Ms McHugh left her partner and would refer to Baden-Clay as "GM" for gorgeous man. He referred to her as "GG" for gorgeous girl.
They would secretly meet on a quiet dirt road at Pullenvale, in Baden-Clay's Century 21 office at Kenmore and at her home in the inner western suburbs.
On two occasions she went to Baden-Clay's Brookfield home while Allison and the children were away.
Ms McHugh said in "a lot of ways Gerard did defend Allison", who he said had severe bouts of depression, but also did not express admiration or a depth of feeling towards his wife. He also raised fears his wife would take her life if he left her.
"Gerard told me that he did not love Allison and they had not slept together for many years. Gerard told me that he slept most nights on the couch in the living room," Ms McHugh told police.
The affair continued for more than three years until ending abruptly on October 14 last year after "someone at the school canteen" was told of the affair and informed Mrs Baden-Clay. They broke off the relationship but were allegedly seeing each other again within months, until Allison's disappearance.
RUSSIAN police have detained dozens of people, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after breaking up an anti-Vladimir Putin rally in Moscow.
Scores of Muscovites, many holding white roses, defied authorities by gathering at Lubyanka Square, despite temperatures of minus 14 Celsius.
Police pushed protesters from the precinct and shoved some into vans two hours into the Saturday rally following warnings it would be broken up.
"By the end it was rough," Nikolai Svanidze, a member of the Kremlin-linked human rights council told Dozhd television.
Police said around 40 people had been detained.
"The unsanctioned action has now been thwarted and serious provocations were prevented," police said in a statement.
Mr Navalny, possibly the most charismatic figure in the protest movement, was detained a day after investigators launched a new criminal probe against him for suspected fraud.
"It's raving mad. (They) simply snatched me from the crowd," Mr Navalny tweeted from inside a police van.
Police also arrested Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of leftist group the Left Front, and activists Ilya Yashin and Ksenia Sobchak, the daughter of Putin's late mentor Anatoly Sobchak.
"One of the policemen mentioned that we had criminal intentions," Mr Yashin told Echo of Moscow radio by telephone from detention.
The prominent figures arrested all noted that the police vans holding them had been equipped with webcams to keep close watch on their behaviour.
Police put the turnout at around 700 people, over 300 of them journalists and bloggers, but an AFP correspondent said the number of the protesters appeared to be significantly higher.
People laid white lilies, carnations and chrysanthemums at the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to victims of Stalin-era purges adorning the square, as a helicopter hovered overhead.
The opposition movement is hoping to maintain momentum despite internal divisions between liberals, leftists and nationalists and the authorities' tough crackdown on dissenters since Putin's return to the Kremlin in May.
Smaller rallies were held in several cities across Russia including Mr Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg, where about 1200 people gathered for a sanctioned march.
TWO construction workers were confirmed killed and 10 others missing after a barge carrying a crane capsized off South Korea's southeast coast, the coastguard said.
The 2600-ton barge sank off the city of Ulsan after the 80-metre crane collapsed, Yonhap news agency quoted coastguard officials as saying.
Twelve people have so far been rescued with two others confirmed dead, and a search is underway for the 10 missing workers. The accident happened during construction of a new port.
IT'S another year and another Adele domination on the music charts: The British singer is Billboard's top artist of 2012.
Billboard said on Friday Adele is the year's biggest artist and her diamond 21 album, released in February 2011, is this year's top album. Adele earned both prizes last year.
The year's top three songs are Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know, Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe and fun.'s We Are Young, respectively.
Adele is also the top female artist. Drake is the top male artist, One Direction is the top new artist and Maroon 5 is the year's top group.
Billboard said Drake, Taylor Swift, fun. and Don Omar are the top acts in the R&B/hip-hop, country, rock and Latin fields, respectively.
A MAN in Virginia Beach picked up an unusual jogging partner when an emu began following him.
Animal shelter supervisor Wayne Gilbert says Virginia Beach residents contacted the city after the emu showed up Thursday alongside the jogger in the Highgate Green neighborhood.
It turns out that the bird had merely drifted away from its home. Emus are legal to own in the area.
Mr Gilbert tells news media outlets that animal control officers located the bird, which was returned to its owner.
A SICILIAN priest has stunned his congregation by announcing during a mass he's set to become a father and is quitting to marry his partner.
"It's my last mass. I am in love with a woman and in a few months I will be a father," Vito Lombardo, 33, told his flock in the city of Trapani in northwestern Sicily, local newspapers said on Friday.
The relationship had been going on for a while but the priest waited until his partner was five months pregnant before announcing his departure, the reports said.
According to the Giornale di Sicilia daily, Lombardo tipped off the Vatican about his decision to marry before announcing it to his parishioners.
CHINESE authorities have arrested a legislator found to have four wives.
A district official in the northern province of Shanxi said Li Junwen also had 10 children, and had been detained on suspicion of document forgery. Bigamy is a criminal offence in China, while rules restrict most couples to just one child.
Another 14 people were sacked or given warnings or demotions for negligence or helping Mr Li arrange identity documents for his illegitimate children, said the official reached by phone at the Xiaodian district party committee in the provincial capital of Taiyuan.
The 43-year-old Mr Li had been an appointed representative from Xiaodian and the Communist Party head of the village of Xiquan.
The allegations against Mr Li have been featured prominently in state media as part of an anti-corruption drive.ISRAELI Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has announced he is resigning a day after an indictment for breach of trust was filed against him by the country's attorney-general.
Lieberman's decision could throw the Israeli political system into upheaval a month ahead of elections.
Israel's attorney-general indicted Lieberman on Thursday for alleged breach of trust but decided not to file a number of more serious charges in a fraud and money-laundering case.
"I have decided to resign from my position as foreign minister and deputy prime minister," Lieberman wrote in a statement released by his office on Friday.
US President Barack Obama says he won't go after Washington state and Colorado for legalising marijuana.
In a Barbara Walters interview airing today in the US, Mr Obama is asked whether he supports making pot legal. He says - quote - "I wouldn't go that far."
But the president won't pursue the issue in the states where voters legalized the use of marijuana in the November elections. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
Mr Obama says "It does not make sense from a prioritization point of view" to focus on drug use in states where it is now legal.
Marijuana officially became legal in Washington state and Colorado earlier this month.
THE world's five top central banks have agreed to extend temporary currency swap arrangements by a year, the European Central Bank says.
The swap facilities were one of a range of emergency measures used by central banks to prevent the financial system from failing at the height of the financial crisis.
The ECB, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank decided on "an extension of the existing temporary US dollar liquidity swap arrangements until February, 1 2014," the ECB said in a statement on Thursday.
The swap arrangements had previously been authorised until February 1 next year.
The five central banks also decided to extend bilateral swap lines in their own currencies by a year to February 1, 2014, the ECB statement said.
These swaps enable the provision of liquidity in each jurisdiction in any of their currencies, "should market conditions so warrant", it continued.
Swap lines enable central banks to deliver specific currency funding to banks, businesses and other institutions in their jurisdiction during times of market stress.
The move "will enable the eurosystem to continue to provide euros to those central banks when required and to provide to its counterparties, when necessary, Japanese yen, pounds sterling, Swiss francs and Canadian dollars (in addition to the existing liquidity-providing operations in US dollars)," the ECB explained.
The Bank of Japan would consider extending both sets of swap arrangements at its next monetary policy meeting, the ECB added.
The ECB will also continue to conduct regular US dollar liquidity-providing operations with maturities of about one week and three months "until further notice", the central bank said.
US stocks have edged higher as investors digest a batch of mostly positive economic data on jobs, retail sales and inflation.
In the first five minutes of Thursday trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.21 points (0.08 per cent) to 13,256.66.
The broad-market S&P 500 advanced 0.65 point (0.05 per cent) to 1,429.13, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.66 (0.09 per cent) to 3,016.48.
The "inability to rally after the Fed announcement yesterday has taken some steam out of the market, which has been in rally mode since mid-November," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.
"It is understandable given the Grinch-like message from the Fed that participants shouldn't expect a meaningful pickup in economic activity soon whether we go over the fiscal cliff or not," he said.
On Wednesday, after a surge on the Fed's announcement of more bond purchases to support the sluggish economy, the Dow fell 0.02 per cent, breaking a five-day winning streak.
The S&P 500 edged up 0.04 per cent and the tech-rich Nasdaq dropped 0.28 per cent.
NICOLE Kidman has scored two nominations for next year's Golden Globes awards - and other Aussies in the mix include her pal Naomi Watts, and Hugh Jackman.
Kidman was nominated for best performance by an actress in a supporting role, for her confronting performance in The Paperboy (in which, in one scene, she urinates on Zac Efron's foot).
She also is in the running for best performance by an actress in a made-for-TV movie or miniseries, as writer Martha Gellhorn in Hemingway & Gellhorn.
Naomi Watts was nominated for best performance by an actress, for her harrowing lead in The Impossible, about the 2004 tsunami hitting Thailand.
And Hugh Jackman was nominated for best actor in a comedy or musical, for his Jean Valjean in the big-screen Les Miserables.
The best movie nominations, considered an early indicator for Oscars favouritism, were Ben Affleck's Argo, Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, Ang Lee's Life of Pi, Steven Spielberg's Lincoln and Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty.
AMERICANS spent more on cars, electronics and building supplies in November, and shopped more frequently online. The data suggests the economy is rebounding from disruptions caused by Superstorm Sandy.
The Commerce Department says retail sales rose 0.3 per cent in November, offsetting a 0.3 per cent decline in October. When excluding gas station sales, retail sales increased 0.8 per cent. The drop in gas station sales reflected lower prices.
The gains were widespread except at department stores, where sales dropped. That's a troubling development at the start of holiday shopping.
Still, sales at non-store retailers, which include online shopping, rose three per cent. That's the biggest monthly gain in 13 months.
PROSPECTIVE parents are waiting more than four and a half years for the completion of overseas adoptions, official figures show.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) says it took an average of 56 months for the processing of an inter-country adoption in 2011-12, compared to 37 months in 2007-08.
AIHW spokesman Tim Beard said the dramatic increase could be attributed to lengthening processing times in other countries - which are now an average of 30 months, up from 19 months four years ago.
"Processing times are affected by factors such as the number and characteristics of children in need of adoption, the number of applications received and the resources of the overseas authority," he said.
"These are all factors outside the control of Australian authorities."
Despite the lengthy waits, Mr Beard said Australian adoption authorities had actually improved their own processing times.
The total number of completed adoptions in Australia in 2011-12 was just 333 - a record low and a steep decline from the 384 finalised in the previous year, the figures show.
The number was 1494 in 1987-88.
Among the adoptions finalised in 2011-12, overseas children outnumbered Australian children for the first time.
Mr Beard said the generational decline in adoptions reflected social and legislative changes.
THE number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits has fallen sharply for a fourth straight week, in a sign the US job market may be improving.
The Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment benefits fell 29,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 343,000, the lowest in two months. It is the second-lowest total this year.
Applications are a proxy for layoffs, so the drop indicates that companies are cutting fewer jobs. But employers also need to increase hiring to rapidly push down the 7.7 per cent unemployment rate.
Applications spiked five weeks ago because of Superstorm Sandy. The storm's impact has faded. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell 27,000 to 381,500.
Before the storm, applications had fluctuated between 360,000 and 390,000 this year.
SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad's regime is approaching collapse and he should take steps to begin talks on a political transition, NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen says.
"I think the regime in Damascus is approaching the regime of collapse ... it is only a question of time," Rasmussen said on Thursday, adding Assad should "initiate a process that leads to the accommodation of the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people".
"I urge the regime to stop violence, to realise what the actual situation is," he said, as Moscow signalled for the first time that its long-time ally in Damascus could be losing a bloody conflict which has so far cost more than 42,000 lives.
His comments came amid a growing perception the tide has turned, with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov saying the rebels had made important gains after getting increased external support.
"As for preparing for victory by the opposition, this, of course, cannot be excluded," the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Bogdanov as saying.
"You need to look the facts in the eyes - the government regime is losing more and more control over a large part of the country's territory."
Asked if the reported use of Scud missiles was a sign of Assad's desperation, Rasmussen said he could not judge the motive but "the use of such indiscriminate weapons shows utter disregard for the lives of the Syrian people.
"It is reckless and I strongly condemn it," Rasmussen added.
The Scud, fired into Israel and Saudi Arabia by Iraq's Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War, can deliver a payload of 3500 kilos over a range of 200 kilometres or more, defence analysts say.
Karim Bitar, research director at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), said the regime's use of Scuds was an indication it was bracing for a decisive battle.
"The battle for Damascus is about to begin and this battle could change the rules of the game," he said.
THE speaker of Singapore's parliament has resigned after admitting to an extramarital affair, adding to a list of scandals that have undermined the city-state's reputation for clean and efficient governance.
Michael Palmer, the speaker and a member of Singapore's ruling People's Action Party, said his conduct was "improper" and a "serious error of judgment," according to reports by the strait-laced island's state media.
The woman Palmer had an affair with was employed by a government statutory board and worked in Palmer's constituency. Palmer said he resigned to avoid further embarrassment to the parliament and the ruling party, which has been in power since 1959.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a statement that all members of parliament need to uphold the highest standards of personal conduct.
The scandal could result in an election to fill the vacant seat in parliament for Punggol East constituency that Palmer represented, but Lee indicated that he won't be calling a by-election any time soon.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Lee noted that the constitution does not require him to call a by-election within a fixed timeframe. "I will carefully consider whether to call a by-election in Punggol East and, if so, when. I assure Singaporeans that I will make my decision based on what is best for the constituents of Punggol East and the country," he wrote.
A by-election would have been another opportunity for voters to express discontent with the ruling party which has suffered a drop in popularity because of an influx of foreign workers and widening inequality. Palmer won Punggol East with 54.5 per cent of the vote in general elections last year.
The government has been embarrassed by a succession of scandals and mishaps that might hardly raise eyebrows in many neighbouring Southeast Asian countries but have caused outrage in Singapore where the ruling party has cultivated a pristine image.
Last month, immigrant Chinese bus drivers staged Singapore's first strike in 26 years in protest at poor working conditions and low pay. Earlier in the year, the chiefs of Singapore's civil defence force and anti-narcotics unit were sacked and charged with corruption for awarding business contracts in exchange for sexual favours from female company executives.
The government's competence was also questioned after subway breakdowns and flash floods that inundated an upmarket shopping district.
A ROYAL Navy petty officer has been sentenced to eight years in prisons for passing nuclear submarine secrets to British intelligence agents impersonating Russian spies.
Petty Officer Edward Devenney, who was sentenced on Wednesday, was arrested after the undercover operation organised by Britain's domestic security agency, MI5. He was charged with communicating information that could be directly or indirectly useful to the enemy in breach of the Official Secrets Act.
Devenney, 30, from Northern Ireland, pleaded guilty to gathering details of programs used to encrypt secret information. He also admitted misconduct in a public office in relation to a meeting with two people he thought were from the Russian secret service.
He acknowledged discussing the movement of British nuclear submarines with the pair, who were in fact members of the British secret service.
NICOLE Kidman's Oscar campaign has received a major boost with the actress scoring a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for her sexed up performance in The Paperboy.
Kidman, who also received a nomination for her TV movie Hemingway & Gellhorn, will have plenty of mates at the January 27 SAG ceremony, with Naomi Watts and Hugh Jackman also receiving SAG nominations on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
The SAG Awards are one of the major pre-Oscar award ceremonies, with a nomination keeping Oscar campaigns alive, while SAG snubs can torpedo hopes.
Russell Crowe (Les Miserables), Toni Collette (Hitchcock) and Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook) were snubbed by SAG voters.
Jackman, for his leading performance in Les Miserables, is one of the frontrunners for the best acting Oscar and his SAG best actor nomination continues his journey to a possible Academy Award statuette.
Watts, for the tsunami survivor film The Impossible, is also a great shot at an Oscar nomination after winning over SAG voters.
Kidman's nomination for The Paperboy, based on Peter Dexter's book, was one of the big shocks of the SAG nomination ceremony as the Australian redhead has received little recognition for the role until Wednesday.
With Kidman also receiving the nod in the TV category for Hemingway & Gellhorn, her Oscar chances have received a major boost.
Kidman, Jackman, Watts, Crowe, Weaver and Collette have another chance on Friday (AEDT) when the Golden Globes nominations are announced - another major pre-Oscar bellwether.
The Oscar nominations will be revealed on January 10 while the Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for February 24.
PRIME Minister David Cameron says there was a "shocking" level of British state collusion in the 1989 paramilitary murder of Northern Ireland lawyer Pat Finucane.
But a year-long, 500-page review found there was no "over-arching state conspiracy" to murder Finucane, who defended high-profile members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Gunmen from the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) used sledgehammers to break down the door of Finucane's house in north Belfast before shooting the 38-year-old Catholic father-of-three 14 times - one of the most controversial murders of the 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.
The review found that two state agents were involved in the murder, along with another person who later became a state agent.
The British army and the Northern Irish police had prior notice of a series of planned attacks by pro-British paramilitaries but did not act, it found.
Finucane rose to prominence defending members of the IRA - the paramilitary organisation responsible for many of the 3000 deaths in the British province - including hunger striker Bobby Sands.
The UDA, which fought for Northern Ireland to retain links to Britain, stood on the other side of the conflict from the IRA, which wanted a united Ireland free from British control.
Senior lawyer Desmond de Silva, who conducted the independent review, found the murder could and should have been stopped.
"I have concluded that two agents who were at the time in the pay of agencies of the state were involved in Patrick Finucane's murder, together with another who was to become an agent of the state after his involvement in that murder became known to the agency that later employed him," his report said.
De Silva said the collusion had taken the form of "the passage of information from members of the security forces to the UDA, the failure to act on threat intelligence, the participation of state agents in the murder and the subsequent failure to investigate and arrest key members of the West Belfast UDA."
Making a statement to parliament after receiving the review, Cameron apologised to the Finucane family on behalf of the British government, saying the report exposed "shocking levels of state collusion".
"I am deeply sorry," Cameron told MPs. "Collusion should never, ever happen."
De Silva's report found that government ministers were misled as to the extent of security force leaks to the UDA and other loyalist paramilitaries.
"My review of the evidence... has left me in no doubt that agents of the state were involved in carrying out serious violations of human rights up to and including murder," the report said.
"However, despite the different strands of involvement by elements of the state, I am satisfied that they were not linked to an over-arching state conspiracy to murder Patrick Finucane."
The Finucane family have requested a public inquiry into the murder.
Cameron said that while he respected their campaign, he had told them when they met last year that "I would do everything I could to try to get the fullest, truest picture of what happened as quickly as possible."
But he said he believed a "costly, lengthy public inquiry... might not, may well not get as far as this."
OPEC has maintained its oil output ceiling but had to reappoint Secretary-General Abdullah El-Badri to lead the cartel for another year after members failed to agree on a new leader.
As expected by markets, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) kept its oil production ceiling at 30 million barrels per day (mbd), with crude prices remaining at high levels ahead of an expected drop in OPEC demand next year.
"We will hold" output, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said after a ministerial meeting in Vienna, home to OPEC's headquarters.
The ministers also voted to keep Libyan El-Badri on for one more year after the cartel's 12 members failed to agree on a replacement for the secretary-general who had been due to stand down at the end of 2012 after two three-year terms.
"We extended (by) one year for the secretary-general," Naimi told journalists.
"We have an experienced secretary-general in position. Extending it one year is a very, very, very good decision," he went on. The new term begins on January 1.
The world's biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia had been battling against Iraq and political foe Iran to succeed El-Badri, who has steered the cartel through the financial crisis as its secretary-general since 2007.
"It's incredibly important to this organisation (to reach a decision on the position) because the secretary-general sets the tone and leads the organisation as we go forward," Nigerian Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke had told reporters ahead of the decision to keep El-Badri.
A vote to pick El-Badri's successor was postponed in June after OPEC - which produces more than one third of the world's oil - had already failed to reach a unanimous decision among its nation members.
"Mr El-Badri has been a very, very good secretary-general," Madueke said on Wednesday.
OPEC members had failed to agree from three candidates - Majed al-Moneef, a former Saudi governor to OPEC, ex-Iranian oil minister Gholam Hossein Nozari and former Iraq oil minister Thamir Ghadhban.
OPEC meanwhile agreed to maintain its output ceiling, which is in fact about one million barrels below its official daily target. OPEC is pumping out extra crude as Saudi Arabia compensates for lost Iranian output caused by Western sanctions on the Islamic Republic, and as other members look to maximise profits.
Benchmark crude oil prices rose above $US108 ($A103.08) a barrel on Wednesday on supply concerns after OPEC reported a drop in crude production last month, traders said.
However an expected drop in demand for OPEC oil next year risks dampening crude prices despite a background of Middle Eastern unrest, notably over Iran's disputed nuclear program.
OPEC "is unlikely to agree to cut back production as long as oil prices remain relatively healthy," said Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM oil brokers.
"The assumption will be that the Saudis, and perhaps the Kuwaitis, will cut back very quickly if prices start falling."
OPEC on Tuesday kept its forecast for growth in world oil demand unchanged for this year and next. World oil demand was expected to reach 88.80 mbpd in 2012, up from 88.04 mbpd in 2011, the cartel said in its monthly report.
The International Energy Agency released its own forecasts in Paris, raising its estimate for global demand in the last three months of the year to 90.5 million barrels per day, the same level seen for 2013 as a whole.
US stocks have opened higher as investors expected the Federal Reserve would announce new support for the sluggish economy following a two-day monetary policy meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 37.44 points (0.28 per cent) to 13,285.88 in the first 10 minutes of trade, building on a five-day winning streak.
The S&P 500-stock index advanced 4.08 (0.29 per cent) to 1431.92, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 9.87 (0.33 per cent) at 3032.17.
The central bank's Federal Open Market Committee is due to announce its monetary policy update at 12:30 pm (0430 AEST).
"Wall Street is speculating the Fed will replace the expiring Operation Twist program with a fresh round of Treasury purchases," said Karee Venema of Schaeffer's Investment Research.
On Tuesday, gains in technology shares underpinned Wall Street gains.
The Dow added 0.60 per cent, the S&P 500 rose 0.65 per cent and the Nasdaq 1.18 per cent.IN Pyongyang, North Koreans clinked beer mugs and danced in the streets to celebrate the country's first satellite in space. In Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, leaders pushed for consequences for Wednesday's successful rocket launch, widely seen as a test that takes the country one step closer to being capable of lobbing nuclear bombs over the Pacific.
The surprising, successful launch of a three-stage rocket similar in design to a model capable of carrying a nuclear-tipped warhead as far as California raises the stakes in the international standoff over North Korea's expanding atomic arsenal. As Pyongyang refines its technology, its next step may be conducting its third nuclear test, experts warn.
The UN Security Council, which has punished North Korea repeatedly for developing its nuclear program, was to meet behind closed doors on Wednesday. The White House called the launch a "highly provocative act that threatens regional security," and even the North's most important ally, China, expressed regret.
In Pyongyang, however, pride over the scientific advancement outweighed the fear of greater international isolation and punishment. North Korea, though struggling to feed its people, is now one of the few countries to have successfully launched a satellite into space from its own soil; bitter rival South Korea is not on the list, though it has tried.
"It's really good news," Jon Il Gwang told The Associated Press as scores poured into the streets after a noon announcement to celebrate the launch by dancing in the snow. "It clearly testifies that our country has the capability to enter into space."
The North acknowledges three prior failed attempts at a space launch, in 1998, 2009 and this April. It also is believed to have attempted a launch in 2006. The April launch failed in the first of three stages, raising doubts among outside observers whether North Korea could fix what was wrong in just eight months, but those doubts were erased on Wednesday.
The Unha rocket, named after the Korean word for "galaxy," blasted off from the Sohae launch pad in Tongchang-ri, northwest of Pyongyang, shortly before 10am (1200 AEST), just three days after North Korea indicated that technical problems might delay the launch.
A South Korean destroyer patrolling the waters west of the Korean Peninsula immediately detected the launch. Japanese officials said the first rocket stage fell into the Yellow Sea and a second stage fell into the Philippine Sea hundreds of kilometres farther south.
The North American Aerospace Defence Command confirmed that "initial indications are that the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit."
In an indication that North Korea's leadership was worried about the success of the launch, the plan was kept quiet inside North Korea until a special noon broadcast on state TV declared the launch a success. Pyongyang was much more open during its last attempt in April, and even took the unusual step of inviting scores of foreign journalists for the occasion, but that launch ended in failure.
Space officials say the rocket is meant to send a satellite into orbit to study crops and weather patterns.
But the launch could leave Pyongyang even more isolated and cut off from much-needed aid and trade.
The UN imposed two rounds of sanctions following nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and ordered the North not to conduct any launches using ballistic missile technology. Pyongyang maintains its right to develop a civilian space program, saying the satellite will send back crucial scientific data.
The White House condemned what National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor called "yet another example of North Korea's pattern of irresponsible behaviour."
"The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and fully committed to the security of our allies in the region," Vietor said in a statement. "Given this current threat to regional security, the United States will strengthen and increase our close coordination with allies and partners."
Vietor said the international community must "send a clear message that its violations of UN Security Council resolutions have consequences."
China expressed its unhappiness but called for a moderate response from the United Nations.
AN Australian Medical Association (AMA) chief will help the troubled Catholic Church deal with the "issues and ramifications" of the federal royal commission into child sex abuse.
The secretary general of the federal AMA, Francis Sullivan, will take up the Catholic Church post after five years with the medical lobby group.
The announcement from the AMA did not specify Mr Sullivan's new role, but the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Catholic Religious Australia announced last month they would establish a 10-member council of lay people and members of the clergy and the church was due to announce the head of that council on Wednesday.
AMA president Steve Hambleton described his departing colleague as a "highly respected advocate".
"It is with much regret that the AMA is losing such a strong and well-connected colleague, but he is taking on a role for which he is uniquely equipped and very passionate about," Dr Hambleton said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Francis has been a diligent and hardworking leader and manager for the AMA.
"He has not only been a trusted CEO and adviser to the AMA leadership, he has been a friend and confidant."
Before joining the AMA, Mr Sullivan spent 14 years as the chief executive officer of Catholic Health Australia.
THE US trade deficit widened in October as exports fell sharply from the prior month amid a slowing global economy, government data shows.
The trade gap increased to $US42.2 billion ($A40.41 billion) from a revised $40.3 billion in September, the Commerce Department said.
Exports fell by 3.6 per cent, while imports fell by 2.1 per cent.
The decline in exports was the sharpest since January 2009, led by a 4.8 per cent drop in goods exports.
"Trade looks to contribute slightly to US GDP growth again in the current quarter, but pronounced weakness in exports and imports says all there is to say about the US economy's momentum," said Sal Guatieri at BMO Capital Markets.
The politically sensitive trade shortfall with China, one of the United States's biggest trading partners, expanded to a record $28.1 billion, bringing the year's 10-month total to $245.5 billion.
The three-month average trade deficit rose to $41.7 billion in October from $41.5 billion in September.
POLICY-MAKERS are "hanging back" in their response to climate change while they wait for scientific certainty that might never come, a new study suggests.
The report from the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility shows some decision-makers, from politicians to farmers, are delaying taking action on adaptation and risk planning until the uncertainties in climate change information are reduced or disappear altogether.
"But they'll be waiting a long time," report co-author Anthony Kiem told AAP on Wednesday.
Dr Kiem was among University of Newcastle researchers who found a chasm between the way scientists and policy buffs think about climate science.
He said most decision-makers expected more certainty on climate science within the next five to 10 years, so they were not taking urgent action now.
"Effectively they're just hanging back and not making the decisions; they're waiting for the perfect science," Dr Kiem said.
"There's certainly a bit of a gap or a disconnect between what decision-makers need and what climate science is providing."
He said more science communicators and education on both sides could help bridge the gap and ensure that important findings were not "lost in translation".
The report calls for a national "knowledge-broking" program to help address the communication challenge, allowing scientists to understand what information is needed by governments and to make climate science information more useful for decision-makers.
Existing roles like that of Australia's chief scientist were helpful but "ad hoc", Dr Kiem said.
WOMEN have always faced higher unemployment rates than men, and the sluggish global economy in recent years has only made the situation worse, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says.
On a global scale, women saw their unemployment rate close somewhat on that of men in the 1990s, but the financial crisis since 2008 has reversed that trend, the UN's labour organisation said in a report.
"Gaps that already existed before the crisis have increased after the crisis," said former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, who heads the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
She presented with the ILO the Global Employment Trends for Women 2012 report, which showed that women's worldwide unemployment rate from 2002 to 2005 stood at 5.8 per cent, while 5.3 per cent of men were registered as unemployed.
By 2011, 6.4 per cent of women were unwillingly out of work, compared to just 5.7 per cent of men, the report showed.
"The crisis raised this gap from 0.5 to 0.7 percentage points and destroyed 13 million jobs for women," the report said, adding that "projections do not show a significant reduction in this elevated gap by 2013, or even 2017."
This is bad news for the world economy, the organisation said, pointing to an OECD report indicating that a quarter of annual economic growth in Europe in the 1990s was due to increasing employment among women.
Narrowing the gap "is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do," Bachelet said.
The gender gap in unemployment meanwhile varies widely in different regions, with countries in central and eastern Europe for instance seeing higher unemployment among men than women.
This, the ILO explained, is due to the fact that "initially the crisis hit the male-dominated sectors such as construction."
Globally, however, women are harder hit by crises, the ILO explained, since they are more likely to be working on temporary contracts or to have lower education levels.
Women are also more likely than men to exit and re-enter the labour market or to be forced to take part-time work for family reasons.
"Today in the world, in unemployment. . . women are in a very unequal situation," Bachelet said.
"It's not only about glass ceilings, it is also about leaking pipelines," she said, stressing that women in all positions "have to face. . . invisible barriers."
More than 30 police officers have arrived at Musgrave Park where Indigenous activists have vowed to defend the sacred flame that they have re-lit after the site was cleared late Tuesday afternoon. Picture: Brittany Vonow Source: The Courier-Mail
West End's Aboriginal tent embassy has been closed after Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk withdrew official consent for protesters to continue inhabiting the site. Source: The Courier-Mail
West End's Aboriginal tent embassy has been closed after Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk withdrew official consent for protesters to continue inhabiting the site. Source: The Courier-Mail
A GROUP of indigenous activists have re-lit a sacred flame at the Aboriginal tent embassy in Brisbane and will guard the site through the night.
BREAKING: Police have moved in on the Aboriginal tent embassy site in Musgrave Park, arresting several people.
12.45am: One woman who wished to be only known as Karen said she had been at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy site all afternoon, and said she was unimpressed with the police presence.
"We will still rebuild, we'll wait until everyone can get together again," she said.
Most of the police have now left.
12.35am: The main group of protesters has dispersed, moving to the outskirts of the park where they have continued to protest.
A heavy police presence of up to 80 officers are being abused by protesters at the edges of Musgrave Park.
Brisbane City Council workers have completely removed the wood from the site as police continue to guard the area.
12.30am: About 15 people standing on the edge of the park are continuing to protest.
Police are letting one man take some embers from the main fire.
12.25am: One of the protest leaders, Wayne Wharton, was arrested by police.
With one fire out and police guarding the other, Brisbane City Council workers are taking away the firewood.
12.20am: After gathering on the edges of Musgrave Park, more than 30 police officers stormed the Aboriginal tent embassy site, pulling protesters away from fires that had been re-lit.
Police then formed a cordon around the fires before firefighters moved in to douse the sacred flames.
MORE TO COME
Earlier reports:
Activists called an early-morning press conference for Wednesday after Brisbane City Council announced it would remove the tent embassy at the request of indigenous elders.
But embassy spokesman Wayne Wharton told AAP late on Tuesday that about 40 "warriors" later decided to re-light a fire at the site, which includes coals from embassy fires in Moree and the original tent embassy in Canberra, and would stay put to guard it.
He said police officers and fire brigade units had begun gathering at the Musgrave Park site.
"The only thing we're missing now is the military," he said.
"This time, we'll defend it."
A police spokesman could not confirm a ramped-up police presence at the site on Tuesday night, telling AAP all inquiries were being referred to the city's council.
A Queensland Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman told AAP some firefighters were at the site but was unable to say why.
Mr Wharton said it was untrue that the city had the indigenous community's backing.
Pressed on whether he believed violence could erupt overnight, Mr Wharton said he would use "whatever means possible" to defend the tent embassy.
"There are a number of warriors here that will defend it," he said.
EARLIER:
WEST End's Aboriginal tent embassy was closed down late Tuesday afternoon after Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk withdrew official consent for protesters to continue inhabiting the Musgrave Park site.
The development came in response to requests from local indigenous leaders, who had raised concerns about the embassy's ongoing presence in the park.
Mr Quirk said members of Brisbane's indigenous community had serious concerns about the site, including fears it lacked adult supervision and was becoming violent and choked with rubbish.
"This action is being taken strictly at the request of local elders," Mr Quirk said in a statement on Tuesday.
"We have a very good working relationship with Brisbane's indigenous community and if they tell me that the tent embassy has lost its way and needs to close, then I respect that decision."
A delegation of elders joined Cr Quirk in Musgrave Park late this afternoon, as Uncle Des Sandy, of the Yuggera people, formally requested the protesters move on.
They agreed after Cr Quirk gave an undertaking a sacred fire burning in the campsite would not be interfered with.
Council officers moved in on the site to assist with the disassembling of tents.
The operation has so far proceeded without incident.
Protesters have inhabited the park since earlier this year.
The site was thrown in to the spotlight in May when police moved in to evict protesters in the lead up to the annual Paniyiri Greek festival (see the pictures here).
Cr Quirk eventually gave permission for the embassy to remain in another section of the park in the wake of angry protests.
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Egypt has asked to delay its request for a $US4.8 billion ($A4.60 billion) loan agreed in November as violent protests mount in Cairo ahead of a referendum on the constitution.
"In light of the unfolding developments on the ground, the Egyptian authorities have asked to postpone their request for a Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF," a Fund spokeswoman said in a statement.
"The Fund remains in close contact with the authorities, and stands ready to continue supporting Egypt during the ongoing transition and to consult with the authorities on the resumption of discussions regarding the Stand-By Arrangement," the spokeswoman said.
The IMF announcement followed violent protests in Egypt over a deeply disputed constitutional referendum proposed by the Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi.
The IMF and Egyptian authorities provisionally agreed on the loan on November 20. The IMF executive board had been expected to review the deal in this month.
The planned IMF loan is aimed at helping the government bridge financing shortfalls through fiscal 2013-2014 as the country rebuilds an economy left battered by the 2011 overthrow of the Hosni Mubarak regime.
US stocks have headed solidly higher in opening trade following gains in Europe's markets, which came on the back of a surge in German investor sentiment to a seven-month high.
Ten minutes into trade the Dow Jones Industrial Average had gained 62.16 points (0.47 per cent) to 13,232.04.
The broad-market S&P 500 added 7.57 (0.53 per cent) at 1426.12, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite rose 24.62 points (0.82 per cent) to 3011.58.
Insurer AIG was up 2.7 per cent to $34.25 after the US Treasury announced the successful sale of its final 234 million shares at an average of $32.50 a share.
The Nasdaq was boosted as volatile Apple gained 2.0 per cent to $540.39.
OBESE Australians most in need of stomach-reduction surgery are missing out, new research shows.
A survey of almost 50,000 obese Australians found those living in socially disadvantaged areas on low incomes were less likely to have bariatric surgery than their higher earning, better-educated counterparts.
This was despite evidence that people from lower socioeconomic groups were more likely to be obese.
The research, published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, found obese people earning more than $70,000 a year were five times more likely to have bariatric surgery than those earning less than $20,000 per year.
Those living in the least disadvantaged areas were four times more likely to have surgery than those living in the most disadvantaged areas, the study by researchers from the Australian National University (ANU), University of NSW and the Sax Institute found.
Clinical guidelines recommend bariatric surgery only be carried out for those with a body mass index (BMI) over 40kg after other non-surgical options have failed.
ANU researcher Dr Rosemary Korda said it was the first study examining bariatric surgery in Australia according to socioeconomic status.
"We know that obesity is concentrated in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups but our research shows that those who need bariatric surgery the most are the least likely to receive it," Dr Korda said.
There was limited availability of bariatric surgery, which includes gastric banding and bypass procedures, in public hospitals, she said.
Meanwhile, Medicare subsidised the surgery for private patients, effectively restricting lapband surgery to patients who can afford private health insurance and large out-of-pocket costs.
Of the 49,364 participants in the study, 312 had bariatric surgery but only one of those was treated publicly.
Co-author Professor Emily Banks of the Sax Institute said the decision to have surgery should be between a patient and their doctor, based on medical need.
"If surgery was distributed among a wider range of patients, inequalities in obesity and health-related problems could decline," she said.
In 2009, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health and Ageing recommended bariatric surgery be made more available in public hospitals because people who needed it most were missing out.
STRICTER child protection laws have led to a surge in Aboriginal child abuse notifications in the Northern Territory, research shows.
Notification rates for the maltreatment of Aboriginal children increased on average by about 21 per cent a year between 1999 and 2010, according to NT government child protection figures published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday.
The number of substantiated cases grew by 18 per cent a year.
The biggest increases in substantiated cases were for emotional abuse, which grew by 30 per cent a year, and neglect, which rose 22 per cent a year.
The increases began around 2002, when national attention focused on the maltreatment of Aboriginal children following two state-based inquiries in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, the authors said.
Mandatory reporting obligations were strengthened in NT in 2007, the same year the 'Little children are sacred' report into the sexual abuse of Aboriginal children in the territory was released.
"The timing of these changes was consistent with the surge in notifications by many of the reporter groups, including health professionals, school personnel and police," the report's authors said.
"The spotlight placed on child maltreatment in the Northern Territory through two inquiries and the resulting legislative and service responses, including strengthened mandatory reporting obligations, created a surge in notifications."
There were more than 35,000 child protection notifications during the period and 66 per cent of those related to Aboriginal children.
The research was led by Dr Steven Guthridge from the Northern Territory department of health.
AUSTRALIAN shoppers will be weighing up who's been naughty or nice as they splash out $285 each on Christmas gifts this week.
Friends and relatives of ACT residents are in for a particular treat, though, as it is estimated they will each spend nearly $500 this week getting their Christmas shopping done.
The Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) said the penultimate week before Christmas would see shoppers flocking to the nation's stores.
Victoria is set to be a hotspot of shopping, with people spending $171 million more this week than they did the previous week, according to predictions from ANRA and the GE Capital Christmas Retail Index.
"Victoria has always been kind to the retail sector; we're hoping the surge to the shops before Christmas sets the tone for 2013," said ANRA chief executive Margy Osmond.
"Australians will spend $6.5 billion this week on Christmas gifts - $934 million on domestic online and almost $5.6 billion instore - to fill the contents of many a Christmas stocking."
Retailers are cautiously optimistic about Christmas trade despite October's flat retail figures, which were recently announced.
"October's cash rate cut didn't give the retail sector the lift we might have hoped for but the cash rate cut was not immediately passed on by the banks and consumers no longer respond immediately to a cut," added Ms Osmond.
"We are hoping as Aussies realise there is extra cash in their wallets they will splurge a little on the Christmas season or, at the very least, in the post-Christmas sales."
FREEZING temperatures and heavy snowfall have killed at least six people and caused travel chaos across the Balkans.
Officials said four people have died in Croatia and two in Serbia as a result of blizzards in the region of southwestern Europe over the weekend, closing airports and roads and blocking public transportation in big cities.
People travelling in vehicles waited for hours on several roads in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina, including the main highway leading from Belgrade to the Hungarian border, before rescue teams could free them from 50cm of snow that had fallen in just a few hours.
A woman gave birth to a healthy baby in a stranded truck on her way to a hospital, and named her Snezana, or Snow White in Serbian, state TV reported.
Ivica Dacic, who serves as Serbia's prime minister and interior minister, ordered all available police personnel to take part in the rescue operations.
The airport in Zagreb, Croatia, was closed for several hours on Saturday, and some of that nation's roads were closed because of high winds and heavy snow. The situation improved in Croatia on Sunday, but a warning against driving remained in place because of icy roads.
Authorities in Serbia and Croatia warned people to stay indoors.
Blizzards have also hit Slovenia and Bosnia.
As the storms headed east across the Balkans on Sunday, Romania's army was trying to clear snowbound roads as the country voted in a parliamentary election.
A TOUR bus has plunged 300 metres down a ravine deep inside Taiwan's mountains in Hsinchu County, killing 13 passengers.
Ten others were injured in the crash which occurred on Sunday, according to the Hsinchu fire bureau.
Authorities said the passengers were mostly alumni of a local elementary school, in their sixties, who had booked the bus to visit an indigenous mountain village.
"Some died because they were thrown out of the bus," Lin Yuan-yuan, a fire bureau official, told DPA.
"Others were killed inside, as if they were thrown by the bus to the wrong spot at the wrong time."
Local media reported slick road conditions at the crash site.
Investigators are expected to question the driver, who survived the crash.
THE results of the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission investigation into the collapse of the CTV building in Christchurch will be released on Monday afternoon.
The third and final part of the commission's report examines the collapse of the building, which claimed 115 lives in the February 22, 2011 earthquake.
It also deals with roles and responsibilities in the building sector, including building assessments after earthquakes, the training of civil engineers and the regulation of the engineering profession.
It looks at the building consent process and local government management of earthquake risk.
The first part of the report, which examined the PGC building collapse in which 18 people died, was released by the government in August. It contained 70 technical recommendations.
Part two was released last week. It examined 21 other building failures which caused 42 deaths, and made recommendations about minimising the risk from earthquake-prone buildings.
The commission's rulings are not binding on the government.
The final part of the report was given to Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae last month. The families were briefed on Sunday.
Deaths in the CTV building are also investigated by Coroner Gordon Matenga, who has reserved his ruling after an inquest which ended on Thursday.
AT least 10 people have been killed after South Sudanese troops opened fire on demonstrators angry at officials moving the seat of local authority outside a state capital.
"The SPLA (army) opened fire" on protesters "demonstrating the excessive use of force," said UN peacekeeping mission spokesman Liam McDowall.
Four people were killed in the town of Wau during clashes overnight Saturday, while six more were shot dead on Sunday, he said.
However, there were conflicting reports as to whether some of the demonstrators may also have been armed.
"We are investigating the allegations of armed elements inside the demonstrations, as well as allegations of the disproportionate use of force by the army against civilians," Kella Kueth, an army spokesman, told AFP.
Protests began after officials said they would move the seat of local authority out from Wau, capital of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, to a nearby smaller settlement of Bagare.
Troops were sent in on Saturday to remove protesters blockading roads leading out of Wau, while UN peacekeepers had been shuttling between demonstrators and the army to try to calm both sides.
"A number of protesters fled to the cathedral where they took sanctuary," McDowall said, adding that the army later surrounded the building and had to be persuaded back to their barracks by the Bishop of Wau.
The situation was "still tense" on Sunday, with authorities issuing a curfew from dusk until dawn, McDowall added.
South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, is awash with weapons after decades of war with Sudan, which it broke free from in July 2011.
