Benghazi security a 'huge problem': Obama

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has admitted that a probe into a deadly assault on a US consulate in Libya had uncovered a "huge problem" in security procedures at the mission.

"We're not going to be defensive about it," Obama said in an interview recorded on Saturday for NBC's Meet the Press. "We're not going to pretend that this was not a problem. This was a huge problem."

On September 11, the anniversary of the 2001 attacks by al-Qaeda on New York and Washington, heavily-armed militants stormed the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and attacked a nearby CIA safehouse.

Four Americans died in the assault, including US ambassador Chris Stevens, and Obama's domestic opponents have attacked the administration's handling of both security prior to the attack and public statements afterwards.

In his interview, Obama said all of the recommendations of a critical report into the State Department's operation in Benghazi would be implemented, and said US agents were hunting down those responsible for the killings.

"With respect to who carried it out, that's an ongoing investigation. The FBI has sent individuals to Libya repeatedly," the president said.

"We have some very good leads, but this is not something that I'm going to be at liberty to talk about right now."

Obama also defended UN ambassador Susan Rice, who was accused by Republican lawmakers of misleading the public when she said the attack was a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim film made privately in the United States.

Rice had been considered the frontrunner to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as America's top diplomat in Obama's second term, but dropped out of the running after becoming the focus of Republican attacks.

"She appeared on a number of television shows reporting what she and we understood to be the best information at the time," Obama said, accusing opponents of making a scapegoat of his close ally.

"This was a politically motivated attack on her. I mean, of all the people in my national security team, she probably had the least to do with anything that happened in Benghazi."

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Russia sends landing ships to Syria

A RUSSIAN warship carrying a marines unit has left its Black Sea port for Syria amid preparations for a possible evacuation of nationals living and working in the strife-torn country, news reports say.

The Novocherkassk landing ship is the third such craft dispatched since Friday to the Tartus port that Russia leases from its last Middle East ally, agencies cited an unnamed official in the general staff as saying.

The reports said the Azov and Nikolai Filchenkov landing ships had also been sent to Syria from their Russian bases.

The military source said the Novocherkassk would arrive at Tartus within the first 10 days of January.

The Novocherkassk and another landing ship called Saratov both made a rare port call to Tartus in late November.

Officials did not disclose the details of that visit.

The Tartus base is Russia's only remaining naval station outside the former Soviet Union and is seen as a major strategic asset for Moscow.

Russia has been accused of using the base to supply Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with secret military shipments supplementing the official weapons sales that Moscow has made to Damascus since Soviet times.

But recent rebel gains prompted Russia to admit for the first time this month that Assad's days in power may be numbered.

Officials have since openly acknowledged making preparations for a possible evacuation should the safety of Russians in Syria be threatened by Assad's downfall.

The three landing ships will be joining what Russian reports said was a much broader exercise off the coast of Syria involving vessels from three naval fleets.

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Magazine mistakenly publishes Bush obit

GERMANY'S respected news weekly Der Spiegel has mistakenly published an obituary for former US president George Bush senior, hours after a family spokesman said the 88-year-old was recovering from illness.

Bush was hospitalised in Houston November 23 for treatment of a bronchitis-related cough and moved to intensive care on December 23 after he developed a fever.

On Saturday, spokesman Jim McGrath said Bush was moved out of intensive care into a regular hospital room again after his condition improved.

The unfinished obituary appeared on Der Spiegel's website for only a few minutes on Sunday before it was spotted by internet users and removed.

In it, the magazine's New York correspondent described Bush as "a colourless politician" whose image only improved when it was compared to the later presidency of his son, George W Bush.

"All newsrooms prepare obituaries for selected figures," the magazine said on its Twitter feed. "The fact that the one for Bush senior went live was a technical mistake. Sorry!"

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Switzerland freezes Mubarak sons' $300m

SWISS authorities have frozen $US300 million ($A290 million) sitting in Credit Suisse accounts in Geneva held by the sons of deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the newspaper Le Matin Dimanche has reported.

The funds are held in accounts belonging to Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, sons of the ex-president who are currently being held in an Egyptian prison.

The brothers are accused of using their position as scions of Egypt's long-time ruler to help themselves to villas, luxury cars and stakes in the country's key companies.

According to the newspaper, the funds were deposited at the Credit Suisse in 2005, which was after Switzerland tightened rules governing transactions by politically exposed depositors.

A Credit Suisse spokesman refused comment, citing the bank's secrecy policy.

The paper said Egypt-linked funds had also been frozen at the Swiss office of French banking giant BNP Paribas.

Switzerland has opened a probe targeting 14 people close to the Mubarak regime who are suspected of embezzling public funds and widescale corruption.

Earlier this month, Swiss authorities refused to provide their Egyptian counterparts with access to their findings so far, citing concerns for the "institutional situation" in Cairo.

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Israel must talk to Abbas: Peres

PRESIDENT Shimon Peres has urged Israel to resume peace talks with the Palestinians, saying their president Mahmoud Abbas is a willing partner with whom an agreement can be reached.

Speaking with Israeli diplomats at his Jerusalem residence on Sunday, Peres said the only way the Jewish state could positively affect the fluctuating reality in the region was "to complete the peace agreement with the Palestinians".

"I know there are different opinions," he said. "This is not a matter of ideology, this is a matter of appraising" the situation.

"I have known Abu Mazen for 30 years, and nobody will change my opinion of him," Peres continued, using Abbas's nom de guerre.

"I know there is criticism of things Abu Mazen said," Peres continued, but "there is currently no other Arab leader who is saying he is in favour of peace, against terror, in favour of a demilitarised state, and of ... the Palestinian consensual right of return."

"There is not much time left," he warned.

Talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold since September 2010, with the Palestinians insisting on a settlement freeze before returning to the negotiating table and the Israelis insisting on no preconditions.

Following last month's historic United Nations vote giving the Palestinians upgraded status in the world body, Israel announced a new spate of settlement building in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Peres's remarks elicited a harsh response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, which is contesting January 22 elections on a joint list with ex-foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman's ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.

"It is very saddening that the president chose to express a personal political opinion that is contrary to the Israeli public's stance on Abu Mazen, the peace refuser," a statement from the party read.

"The prime minister has called on Abu Mazen to return to the negotiating table dozens of times," it read, saying the Palestinian leader "prefers to join forces with Hamas and act against Israel in every possible sphere".

Lieberman, who resigned as Israel's top diplomat earlier this month, following indictments on fraud and breach of trust, has consistently said Abbas is not interested in reaching a peace deal with Israel.

He has also described Abbas as an obstacle to negotiations, suggesting it would be better for the president to step down.

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Nobel scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini dies

RITA Levi-Montalcini, a biologist who conducted underground research in defiance of Fascist persecution and went on to win a Nobel Prize for helping unlock the mysteries of the cell, has died at her home in Rome.

She was 103 and had worked well into her final years.

Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, announcing her death in a statement on Sunday, called it a great loss "for all of humanity".

Italy's so-called "Lady of the Cells", a Jew who lived through anti-Semitic discrimination and the Nazi invasion, became one of her country's leading scientists and shared the Nobel medicine prize in 1986 with American biochemist Stanley Cohen for their groundbreaking research carried out in the United States. Her research increased the understanding of many conditions, including tumours, developmental malformations and senile dementia.

Italy honoured Levi-Montalcini in 2001 by making her a senator-for-life.

A petite woman with upswept white hair, she kept an intensive work schedule well into old age.

"A beacon of life is extinguished" with her death, said a niece, Piera Levi-Montalcini, who is a city councillor in Turin.

Levi-Montalcini was born April 22, 1909, to a Jewish family in the northern city of Turin. At age 20 she overcame her father's objections that women should not study and obtained a degree in medicine and surgery from Turin University in 1936.

She studied under top anatomist Giuseppe Levi, whom she often credited for her own success and for that of two fellow students and close friends, Salvador Luria and Renato Dulbecco, who also became separate Nobel Prize winners. Levi and Levi-Montalcini were not related.

After graduating, Levi-Montalcini began working as a research assistant in neurobiology but lost her job in 1938 when Italy's Fascist regime passed laws barring Jews from universities and major professions.

Her family decided to stay in Italy and, as World War II neared, Levi-Montalcini created a makeshift lab in her bedroom where she began studying the development of chicken embryos, which would later lead to her major discovery of mechanisms that regulate growth of cells and organs.

With eggs becoming a rarity due to the war, the young scientist biked around the countryside to buy them from farmers. She was soon joined in her secret research by Levi, her university mentor, who was also Jewish and who became her assistant.

"She worked in primitive conditions," Italian astrophysicist Margherita Hack told Sky TG24 TV in a tribute to her fellow scientist. "She is really someone to be admired."

The 1943 German invasion of Italy forced the Levi-Montalcini family to flee to Florence and live underground. After the Allies liberated the city, she worked as a doctor at a centre for refugees.

In 1947 Levi-Montalcini was invited to the United States, where she remained for more than 20 years, which she called "the happiest and most productive" of her life.

During her research at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, she discovered nerve growth factor, the first substance known to regulate the growth of cells. She showed that when tumours from mice were transplanted to chicken embryos they induced rapid growth of the embryonic nervous system. She concluded the tumour released a nerve growth-promoting factor that affected certain types of cells.

The research increased the understanding of many conditions, including tumours, developmental malformations, and senile dementia. It also led to the discovery by Stanley Cohen of another substance, epidermal growth factor, which stimulates the proliferation of epithelial cells.

The two shared the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1986.

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Missing NSW man may be headed home

AN 87-year-old man who was visiting relatives in Melbourne for Christmas has gone missing and may be headed home to NSW.

Vincent Poole was staying with relatives in Ringwood and was last seen at their Barkly Street flat about 2pm (AEDT) on Sunday.

Family members are concerned about Mr Poole's welfare as he suffers from a medical condition and is required to take regular medication, police said.

Investigators believe he does not have a mobile phone and may be confused about his whereabouts and headed for Spencer Street Station or NSW.

He is described as being Caucasian, with a thin build and short white hair and was wearing a black jumper with a yellow and red pattern, brown pants and a brown hat when last seen.

He is believed to be carrying a walking stick and a luggage case with wheels.

Anyone who sees him is asked to contact triple zero immediately.

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US public want guards in every school: NRA

THE largest US gun rights lobbying organisation is sticking to its call for placing armed police officers and security guards in every school as the best way to avoid shootings such as the recent massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association, said his organisation would push Congress to pay for more school security guards and would co-ordinate efforts to put former military and police offers in schools as volunteer guards.

"If it's crazy to call for putting police and armed security in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," LaPierre said in a broadcast interview. "I think the American people think it's crazy not to do it. It's the one thing that would keep people safe."

LaPierre also refused to support any new gun control legislation and contended that any new efforts by Congress to regulate guns or ammunition would not prevent mass shootings.

His comments on NBC television's Meet the Press reinforced the position that the NRA took on Friday when it broke its week-long silence on the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

LaPierre's remarks on Friday prompted widespread criticism, even on the front page of the conservative New York Post, which had the headline: "Gun Nut! NRA loon in bizarre rant over Newtown."

The NRA's stand has been described by some lawmakers as tone-deaf.

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, says LaPierre blames everything but guns for a series of mass shootings in recent years.

"Trying to prevent shootings in schools without talking about guns is like trying to prevent lung cancer without talking about cigarettes," Schumer said.

The NRA plans to develop a school emergency response program that would include volunteers from the group's 4.3 million members to help guard children, and has named former federal politician Asa Hutchinson, an Arkansas Republican, as national director of the program.

Hutchinson said local districts should make decisions about armed guards in schools.

"I've made it clear that it should not be a mandatory law, that every school has this. There should be local choice, but absolutely, I believe that protecting our children with an armed guard who is trained is an important part of the equation," he told the American ABC's This Week.

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Kenya arrests 61 over tribal violence

KENYAN police have arrested 61 suspects over a brutal attack on a remote village in the southeast involving two rival communities that left 45 people dead including women and children.

Villagers were hacked to death and their homes torched in Friday's attack on Kipao village in the Tana River delta region, an area where deadly tribal violence killed another 100 people earlier this year.

Police said on Saturday they had arrested 56 people, including a policeman, in the wake of the onslaught, which they feared could further inflame tensions between the rival Orma and Pokomo communities in the area.

Another five were arrested in a late-night "security operation", a police officer said on condition of anonymity on Sunday.

Police attributed the killings to a disarmament operation in the area but the violence could also be linked to the election being held next March, the first since Kenya was gripped by deadly inter-ethnic killings after a December 2007 vote.

Police said the dead in Kipao included 16 children, five women and 10 men, along with 14 assailants.

The United States said on Saturday it condemned "in the strongest terms" the renewed violence between the communities in the Tana area, where conflicts have flared intermittently over access to land and water points.

Kenya votes on March 4 in its first election since the disputed 2007 vote, which led to the worst inter-ethnic violence since independence with more than 1100 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Two of the candidates running for the presidency are Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who lost his bid in the 2007 vote, and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for his alleged role in the violence which shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability.

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NRA: Public wants armed guards in schools

NATIONAL Rifle Association executive Wayne LaPierre says the American people think it would be "crazy" not to put armed guards in every school, as the group has suggested in the wake of the massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Mr LaPierre also contends that any new efforts by Congress to regulate guns or ammunition would not prevent mass shootings.

Mr LaPierre's comments on NBC's Meet the Press reinforced the position that the largest gun-rights lobby took on Friday when it broke its week-long silence on the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

That stand has described by some lawmakers as tone-deaf.

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, says Mr LaPierre blames everything but guns for a series of mass shootings in recent years.

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Turkey lifts NATO Israel veto

NATO member Turkey has agreed to lift its veto on non-military co-operation between the alliance and Israel, which it imposed over a deadly raid on a Turkish aid ship to Gaza in 2010, a diplomat says.

Ankara took the retaliatory measure after the Israeli army stormed the ship carrying humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip while it was in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, leaving nine Turks dead.

The decision to renew NATO links came at a December 4 meeting in Brussels of the 28-member alliance on a proposal by its Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the diplomat said on Sunday.

In return, several NATO allies of Israel agreed to drop a veto against co-operating with Turkey-friendly countries notably in the Arab world.

Turkey will agree to Israeli involvement in certain NATO activities but will maintain its ban on joint military manoeuvres, and Ankara reserves the right to bar activities with Israel on its own soil.

The agreement comes after NATO agreed early this month to deploy Patriot anti-aircraft missiles along the Turkish border with Syria.

Turkey's relations with its former ally Israel deteriorated sharply after the Gaza ship raid.

Israel has rejected Ankara's demands for an apology and compensation.

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Air strike on Syria bakery kills dozens

AN air strike near a bakery in the rebel-held town of Halfaya in the central Syrian province of Hama has killed dozens of people, a monitoring group says.

"Dozens of people were killed in an air strike on Halfaya," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while activists in Hama said Sunday's raid had targeted a bakery in the town.

"In Halfaya, regime forces bombarded a bakery and committed a massacre that killed dozens of people, including women and children, and wounded many others," said the Local Co-ordination Committees, a grassroots network of activists.

"A MiG (jet) has attacked! Look at (President Bashar al-) Assad's weapons. Look, world, look at the Halfaya massacre," says an unidentified cameraman shooting an amateur video distributed by the Observatory.

The footage showed a bombed one-storey block, and a crater in the road beside it.

Bloodied bodies lay on the road, while others could be seen in the rubble.

Men carried victims out on their backs, among them at least one woman, the video showed.

On Monday, rebels launched an all-out assault on army positions across Hama, which is home to strong anti-regime sentiment.

Earlier in the year, rights groups accused government forces of committing war crimes by dropping bombs and using artillery on or near several bakeries in the northern province of Aleppo.

One of the bloodiest attacks was on a bread line in the Qadi Askar district of Aleppo city on August 16 that left 60 people dead, according to local hospital records.

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Japan PM steps up pressure on central bank

JAPAN'S incoming prime minister Shinzo Abe has stepped up pressure on the Bank of Japan to set a two per cent inflation target, threatening to change a law guaranteeing the bank's independence if it does not agree.

Speaking on Fuji Television on Sunday, Abe said the BoJ's central policy board must back his proposed inflation goal at its next meeting in January.

"If unfortunately it refuses to agree to it, we have to amend the BoJ law, reach an accord (between the government and the bank) and we will have the policy," Abe said.

The law, called the Bank of Japan Act, spells out the central bank's duties and guarantees its independence.

The act also says the bank should work with the government to make sure "its currency and monetary control and the basic stance of the government's economic policy shall be mutually compatible".

Abe also said the BoJ should be held responsible for expanding employment, a point he had stressed during his recent election campaign.

The hawkish leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party is expected to take office on Wednesday, following a landslide victory in national elections last weekend.

Abe has already criticised the central bank for not doing more to stoke Japan's economy - which may have slipped into a recession in the third quarter - and has advocated "unlimited" easing measures, drawing a mixed response from economists.

But the market has welcomed his rhetoric, boosting the Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in recent weeks.

The central bank's policy board met on Thursday and expanded an existing asset-buying program to pump money into the market, but kept interest rates unchanged at between zero and 0.1 per cent.

BoJ governor Masaaki Shirakawa told a news conference on Thursday his board would review their one per cent inflation goal, but made no direct mention of the two per cent inflation target.

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Families want truth of 'Libyan Lockerbie'

THE families of the 157 passengers and crew who died aboard a Libyan Airlines flight, which reportedly crashed with a fighter jet over Tripoli airport 20 years ago, never believed it was an accident.

"Every single one of us was convinced from the beginning that this was not an accident. If we had been under any other leader, perhaps we would have believed it," said Sharif Noha, 39, who lost his father.

His doubts stem from the fact that Libya was ruled at the time by mercurial dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who eventually admitted his country was behind the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 243 passengers and 16 crew.

The world has paid much attention to the Lockerbie bombing, which also killed 11 people on the ground in the Scottish town, but few know that another tragedy shook Libya almost exactly four years later.

Many in Libya believe Flight LN1103 was downed on December 22, 1992 on the orders of the Gaddafi regime in a bid to win international sympathy in the face of Western sanctions and to deflect attention from the Lockerbie anniversary.

For 20 years they grieved in silence and alone.

But the suspicion that the "accident" was manufactured persisted, feeding on details such as the similar dates and flight numbers, and the knowledge that the crew of the MiG allegedly involved in the crash both survived.

"It was reported as a mid-air collision but it was all orchestrated. The MiG never crashed into it," said Felicity Prazak, who remains determined to get to the bottom of how her British husband died 20 years ago.

"This is Libya's unknown atrocity," she said.

Noha stressed: "It was clearly linked to Lockerbie."

One theory is that the Boeing 727 was packed with explosives. Another is that it was shot down by a warplane as it prepared to land because the explosives failed to detonate over the Mediterranean as planned.

The 2011 revolution that toppled the Gaddafi regime has opened an unprecedented opportunity for the families of the passengers to meet, compare notes, collect evidence and perhaps finally achieve closure.

The new authorities tell them there is a real commitment to establish the truth, to punish anybody who was involved and to provide compensation for the families.

"We now have a chance to know the full truth of who was behind this crime," said Mohammed Megaryef, the president of the Libyan national assembly, during a remembrance ceremony held on Saturday.

Hamida Hussein, an elderly woman who came to the event in a wheelchair, remains tearful for the two sons she believes she lost to the Gaddafi regime - one in a notorious 1996 prison massacre and the other on Flight LN1103.

But the thought of finally establishing the truth brings a smile to her weathered face.

"I thank God for giving me a life long enough to see the day when the truth comes out and the tyrant is gone," she said.

One of the few people to have at least a partial picture of what happened that fateful day is surviving MiG pilot Abdel Majid Tiyyari. He insisted in an interview with AFP that he took the fall for a crime he did not commit.

The former air force major said: "I was accused of violating my altitude and climbing to the altitude of the Boeing 727, causing the collision and the death of 157 passengers. But in fact I was flying according to procedure."

Tiyyari insisted he only saw the "detached tail" of the Boeing a split second before a shudder hit his aircraft from below, sending it into a nose spin, which he and his colleague barely survived by ejecting.

He says he spent 42 months behind bars for a "collision that never happened".

Tiyyari is convinced that a professional analysis of the flight records would show conclusively that the evidence was tampered with and reveal discrepancies in the reported altitudes of the two aircraft.

He is keen to quash rumours that he shot down the Boeing, stressing the MiG model he was flying with a colleague in training was not equipped with a missile carrier or gunsight.

"There are a lot of rumours but I have a lot of answers," he said. "The key to finding out what happened to the Boeing is determining what caused the separation of the tail unit."

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Business confidence at record highs: CBA

OPTIMISM among mid-sized Australian businesses has hit record highs in the lead-up to Christmas, a quarterly survey has found.

Commonwealth Bank's future business index rose to 9.3 in December, from 4.3 in September.

The survey focuses on companies with a revenue of $10 million to $100 million, assessing their outlook on business conditions and challenges, projected revenue, investment plans and how prepared they are to cope with volatile conditions in the next six months.

The index first hit 9.3 in March this year, and was its highest ever score.

Almost half (45 per cent) of the companies surveyed said they were well-prepared for future business conditions, while 31 per cent said they thought conditions would improve in the next six months.

However, they expressed concern about rising energy costs in Australia, and a potential economic slowdown in Asia.

Looking at individual sectors, transport and logistics, business services and information, and media and technology were the most confident.

The least confident included manufacturing, wholesale trade and mining - with the latter reporting a significant drop.

Commonwealth Banks executive general manager of corporate financial services Symon Brewis-Weston said that despite the confident reading, most firms were approaching 2013 with caution.

"We're finding that its something of a wait-and-see period for the mid-market," he said.

"The feeling is that while companies expect a moderate decline in costs and they're feeling more prepared for the future, there is little appetite for investment and major changes.

"Companies are placing less emphasis on growth at the moment and ensuring they have the financial support required for any unforeseen challenges in the future."

The index showed moderate optimism among the states and territories, with Victoria and Tasmania recording steady confidence, both rising to 14 from 6.2.

Meanwhile, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory were the only regions in decline, both falling to six from 10.4.

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More Aussies could avoid stroke: experts

MANY stroke sufferers miss out on a lifesaving de-clotting drug and four in 10 get treated in general wards rather than specialist stroke units, an advocacy group says.

Stroke is Australia's second-largest killer and many of the 350,000 survivors live with a disability and struggle with basic daily tasks such as eating and cooking.

The National Stroke Foundation is lobbying the federal government and opposition to commit to a $198 million action plan to boost services and increase awareness of how to prevent stroke and recognise the signs of stroke.

Chief executive Erin Lalor says many patients who attend hospital with stroke don't get access to de-clotting thrombolysis drugs that must be administered within four hours.

"If the hospital is too slow or people delay presentation to hospital they can't have it," she told AAP.

"It's a lifesaving drug."

She said four in 10 people were treated for stroke in general wards, rather than specialist units, and this increased their chances of death or disability.

A number of major hospitals, particularly in Queensland, don't have specialist stroke units, Dr Lalor said.

As part of the plan, the foundation wants the government to spend $121 million extra over three years to fund more stroke units and boost the quality of existing care.

They want a national rollout of a pharmacy health-check program, currently funded by the NSW and Queensland governments, which involves a free blood pressure and diabetes check. Pharmacists then advise people whether they need to go to their GP for more testing.

When Lina Brohier had a stroke in 2008 at age 31, a transient ischemic attack followed, making her dizzy, heavy and voiceless.

The attack passed and she didn't go to the doctor.

"If there was more information and advertising about stroke maybe people like me would be prevented from having a stroke," she told AAP.

"You think ... it's not going to happen to me; it's something that happens to old people."

The stroke left her with no muscle movement on the right side of her body.

After extensive rehabilitation and occupational therapy, Ms Brohier made a full recovery.

Dr Lalor said people over the age of 45 should be able to get an integrated check for their risk of stroke, heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease when they visit their GPs.

She said there also needs to be more support for people living with stroke, as well as their carers.

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Italy's recovery tipped to start in 2013

ITALY'S economic recovery is likely to begin in the third or fourth quarter of 2013, the central bank governor says, urging any new government to continue reforms and cut red tape for businesses.

"Our analyses suggest that there is a higher than 50 per cent probability that the turnaround will come in the third or fourth quarter of 2013," Bank of Italy chief Ignazio Visco said in an interview with La Stampa newspaper.

Visco also said there had been a "significant" lowering of tensions on the debt market for Italy in recent months due to the return of foreign investors and Italian banks that enabled the treasury to sell long-term bonds.

Asked about a possible recourse to European Central Bank assistance on the bond market, Visco said this was not on the cards since "the current conditions are less tense".

He cautioned, however, that "political and economic uncertainty is a burden" and said that "the fruits of austerity must not be wasted".

"The only way is to continue and reduce the negative effects that the reforms could have on certain sectors and at certain times," he said.

"The efforts made must not be for nothing. We have to decisively seek greater efficiency and reduce the limits on entrepreneurs," he added.

Italy is expected to go to the polls in February.

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Gay rights campaigners protest at Vatican

GAY rights campaigners have held a small protest near St Peter's Square during the Pope's weekly prayers after he said legalising gay marriage threatened the institution of marriage.

About 15 activists held up colourful paper hearts with slogans written on them including "Gay Marriage", "Love Has No Barriers", "Talk About Love", "Homophobia = Death" and "Marry Peace".

One of the hearts read "Love Thy Neighbour".

The protesters were prevented from accessing St Peter's Square, which was packed with tens of thousands of faithful for the traditional Angelus prayer on the third Sunday of Advent.

The protest came as thousands prepared to take to the streets in France in support of a government proposal to legalise gay marriage that is fiercely opposed by sections of the opposition right, Roman Catholic bishops and other religious leaders.

In a message intended for World Peace Day on January 1, the Pope on Friday reiterated the Catholic Church's position against gay marriage.

He called for promotion of "the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union.

"Such attempts actually harm and help to destabilise marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society," he said.

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Disputed islands are Japan's: new PM

SHINZO Abe, who has led his Liberal Democratic Party to an election win, says there is no doubt about Japan's ownership of islands at the centre of a dispute with China.

"China is challenging the fact that (the islands) are Japan's inherent territory," said Abe, who is expected to become prime minister.

"Our objective is to stop the challenge. We don't intend to worsen relations between Japan and China."

Japan and China have been at loggerheads for decades over the sovereignty of a small chain of islands in the East China Sea.

The dispute flared badly in September after Tokyo nationalised islands that it calls the Senkakus, but China knows as the Diaoyus.

Chinese boats have plied waters near the chain most days since and on Thursday Beijing sent a plane to overfly them. Japan scrambled fighter jets to head it off.

"Japan and China need to share the recognition that having good relations is in the national interests of both countries. China lacks this recognition a little bit. I want them to think anew about mutually beneficial strategic relations," Abe said on Sunday.

China urged Japan's new leaders not to "pick fights" with neighbours.

The official news agency Xinhua noted Abe's "landslide" victory but said the incoming leadership must find a way to manage disputes with neighbours.

"Instead of pandering to domestic hawkish views and picking fights with its neighbours, the new Japanese leadership should take a more rational stand on foreign policy," it said.

The commentary came just days after Beijing's latest effort to bolster its claim to the islands, by submitting to the United Nations information on the outer limits of its continental shelf.

Meanwhile, Abe said his first port of call as prime minister would be the United States.

Tokyo relies on Washington for its security under a post-World War II treaty that allows the US to station tens of thousands of troops in Japan.

But that alliance has been seen to drift under the three-year rule of the Democratic Party of Japan.

He also spoke of the need for Japan to boost its other ties in the region.

"We also need to deepen ties with Asia. I want to build up ties with Asian nations including India and Australia. After enhancing our diplomacy, I want to improve relations with China."

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Abe: A once and future PM for Japan

SHINZO Abe, whose Liberal Democratic Party stormed to victory in Sunday's election, returns to the prime ministership as a hawk with strident views on Japan's place in the world.

He was the country's youngest ever prime minister when he stepped into the role in 2006, aged 52, and the first one to be born after World War II, but left office abruptly citing illness after an election loss.

Now 58, the conservative ideologue will return to the prime minister's official residence with promises of a more assertive diplomacy in the face of an increasingly confident China and an always unpredictable North Korea.

Casting himself as an uncompromising leader, Abe has also voiced his willingness to amend laws to force monetary easing moves from the Bank of Japan, which would see it print more money, buy more bonds and have to meet an inflation target to achieve economic growth.

The prime minister-in-waiting will be the second man in modern Japan to serve as prime minister twice, after Shigeru Yoshida, who led the nation in 1946-47 and 1948-54.

The LDP have achieved a commanding parliamentary majority, but analysts say mostly by default with voters looking to punish the disappointing rule of the Democratic Party of Japan.

Despite the landslide, Abe may struggle with the electorate at large, where voters remember his disappointing first tenure, which ended in ignominy and bowel problems in 2007.

He was to become the first in a series of short-lived premiers in Japan, each of whom lasted around a year. His return to the job will make him the seventh change in six years.

Abe came to power as a preferred successor named by then-popular prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, for whom he had served as an eager and earnest deputy.

At the time, he symbolised the continuity of Koizumi's reform agenda as well as youth that could breathe life into an increasingly tired-looking country weighed down by a fragile economic recovery.

His tough talking on North Korea, which admitted in 2002 that it had abducted Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s, also appealed to voters.

But the third-generation politician, groomed from birth for the job by his elite, conservative family, complained of illness following an election defeat in 2007 and after a series of scandals involving his ministers.

Since his return to the helm of the LDP he has aggressively championed an uncompromising Japan on the world stage.

One of his most passionate causes has been revising the country's pacifist constitution, which was imposed on a defeated Japan by the United States in 1947, seven years before he was born.

He has promised to instil patriotism among school children and to visit the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo, seen as a symbol of Japan's war-time aggression in Korea and China.

He has long attempted to roll back the legacy of World War II defeat, including revising Japan's contrition on so-called "comfort women".

The issue has flared anew in South Korea, with calls for Japan to compensate women pressed into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers.

During his earlier premiership, Abe remained studiously ambiguous about his beliefs and proved more pragmatic than many had expected, working to improve ties with China and South Korea.

His grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was a World War II cabinet member and was briefly jailed as a war criminal. Kishi later became a post-war prime minister, fighting leftists to build a new alliance with Washington.

His father was Shintaro Abe, a foreign minister who never achieved his ambition of becoming prime minister. Shinzo Abe took his father's parliamentary seat in 1993 following his death and fulfilled his goal, albeit temporarily.

Abe's hawkish image may be softened by his wife, Akie Abe, the daughter of a prominent businessman. She is known for her love of South Korean culture.

The couple have no children.

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Taliban in deadly raid on Pakistan airport

FOUR people have been killed when police and troops battled militants armed with automatic weapons, grenades and mortars in northwest Pakistan's Peshawar, a day after a deadly Taliban raid on the city's airport.

Fierce firing broke out after police acting on an intelligence report tried to storm a building near the airport, where a suicide and rocket attack on Saturday night killed five civilians and the five attackers and wounded 50 other people.

The assault late on Saturday, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, sparked prolonged gunfire and forced authorities to close the airport, a commercial hub and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) base in Peshawar on the edge of the tribal belt.

It was the second Islamist militant attack in four months on a military air base in nuclear-armed Pakistan. In August 11 people were killed when heavily-armed insurgents wearing suicide vests stormed a facility in the northwestern town of Kamra.

Three militants and a police officer were killed in Sunday's fighting, senior police official Imran Shahid told AFP. Troops also took part in the clashes.

Five insurgents took refuge in the half-built building overnight after the airport attack, Shahid said, and the two survivors were still firing at security forces.

Provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain confirmed the casualties and said the raid was launched after intelligence reports that militants were hiding in the construction site.

Live television footage showed troops and police entering a street amid gunfire, while an AFP reporter heard fierce firing in the area.

A PAF statement said five attackers were killed on Saturday and no damage was done to air force equipment or personnel.

Doctor Umar Ayub, chief of Khyber Teaching Hospital near the airport, said five civilians had also been killed and some 50 wounded.

"The base is in total control and normal operations have resumed. The security alert was also raised on other PAF air bases as well," the air force added.

Peshawar airport is a joint military-civilian facility. Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George said the passenger side remained closed but there had been no damage to the terminals.

The air force said Saturday's attackers used two vehicles loaded with explosives, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. One vehicle was destroyed and the second badly damaged.

Security forces found three suicide jackets near one of the vehicles, it said.

"Security forces consisting of Pakistan Air Force and Army personnel who were on full alert, cordoned off the base and effectively repulsed the attack," the air force said.

Television pictures showed a vehicle with a smashed windscreen, another damaged car, bushes on fire and what appeared to be a large breach in a wall.

Five nearby houses were destroyed after rockets landed on them and several other houses developed cracks, while the bomb squad detonated five out of eight bombs found near the base after the attack.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP from an undisclosed location the group would continue to target the airport.

"Our target was jet fighter plans and gunship helicopters and soon we will target them again," he said.

The armed forces have been waging a bloody campaign against the Taliban in the country's northwest in recent years and the militants frequently attack military targets.

Aside from the August attack on Kamra, in May 2011 it took 17 hours to quell an assault on an air base in Karachi claimed by the Taliban. The attack piled embarrassment on the armed forces just three weeks after US troops killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Its forces have for years been battling homegrown militants in the northwest.

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Report into CTV building collapse due

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.

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10 dead after army opens fire in S Sudan

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.

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Syria-linked clashes kill six in Lebanon

SECTARIAN clashes linked to the 21-month conflict in Syria have killed six people and wounded 40 in neighbouring Lebanon.

Sunday's fighting in the northern city of Tripoli between Sunni Muslims and Alawite co-religionists of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad came amid growing international concern about the potential for neighbouring countries to be dragged into the conflict.

Sunni residents of the port city's Bab al-Tebbaneh district exchanged machine gun and rocket fire with Alawite residents of the neighbouring Jabal Mohsen district, leaving three members of each community dead, the security official said.

The fighting, which erupted before dawn, broke a tense calm that had held since the army deployed troops between the two impoverished neighbourhoods early on Friday.

During the night, troops held their positions on side streets but not on the ironically named Syria Street that forms the frontline.

The clashes rocked Tripoli's rival neighbourhoods intermittently throughout the day, the security official said, adding that fighting was still taking place "off and on" in the afternoon.

The latest deaths brought the toll from fighting in the city since Tuesday to 19, including two children.

Longstanding tensions in Tripoli escalated when 22 Sunnis from the Tripoli area who had crossed into Syria to join the armed rebellion against Assad's rule were ambushed by troops in the town of Tal Kalakh on November 30.

Damascus later agreed to repatriate the bodies at the request of the Lebanese foreign ministry, and on Sunday the corpses of three of the slain fighters were received at the Arida border crossing, a security source said.

The atmosphere was tense with shots fired into the air as the bodies of Khader al-Din, Abdel Hakim al-Salah and Mohammed al-Mir were handed over, an AFP correspondent reported.

The body of Mir was initially given to the wrong family but later returned to his father. The others were buried straight after funeral prayers.

A Lebanese official told AFP that Syrian authorities told their counterparts that some members of the group had survived the ambush and were being interrogated.

Opposition activists posted video footage on the internet on Saturday, with the caption: "Abuse of the corpses of the Tripoli martyrs in Tal Kalakh."

In the video, a man is seen kicking at least five lifeless bodies lain out on the ground, while others can be heard cracking jokes in the background. Its authenticity could not be verified.

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US drone kills senior al-Qaeda leader

A US drone strike has killed a senior al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials say.

Sheik Khalid bin Abdel Rehman al-Hussainan, who was also known as Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti, was killed when missiles slammed into a house on Thursday near Mir Ali, one of the main towns in the North Waziristan tribal area, the officials said.

Al-Kuwaiti appeared in many videos released by al-Qaeda's media wing, Al-Sahab, and was presented as a religious scholar for the group.

Earlier this year, he replaced Abu Yahya al-Libi, al-Qaeda's second in command, who was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan in June, the intelligence officials said. Al-Libi was a key religious figure within al-Qaeda and also a prominent militant commander.

Al-Kuwaiti appeared to be a less prominent figure and was not part of the US State Department's list of most wanted terrorist suspects, as al-Libi had been.

Covert CIA drone strikes have killed a series of senior al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan's tribal region over the past few years. But the attacks are controversial because the secret nature of the program makes it difficult to determine how many civilians are being killed.

Pakistani officials often criticise the strikes as a violation of the country's sovereignty, which has helped make them extremely unpopular in the country.

Al-Kuwaiti's wife and daughter were wounded in Thursday's drone attack, according to the intelligence officials. His wife died a day later at a hospital in Miran Shah, another main town in North Waziristan.

Al-Kuwaiti was buried in Tappi village near Mir Ali on Friday, the officials said.

A Pakistani Taliban commander who frequently visits North Waziristan told the Associated Press that he met some Arab fighters on Saturday who were "very aggrieved."

The Arabs told him they lost a "big leader" in a drone strike, but would not reveal his name or his exact position in al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda's central leadership in Pakistan has been dealt a series of sharp blows in the past few years, including the US commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad last year. A significant number of senior al-Qaeda leaders have also been killed in US drone attacks in the country.

Many analysts believe the biggest threat now comes from al-Qaeda franchises in places like Yemen and Somalia.

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New voting law jeopardises coalition seats

THE coalition could lose a swag of marginal seats at next year's federal election as new electoral laws automatically enrol up to 1.5 million voters.

An analysis of Newspoll surveys indicate the coalition's primary vote would slip by 1.5 percentage points if those eligible to vote but not enrolled - mainly young people - were enrolled, The Australian reports.

As many as a dozen Liberal and Nationals seats could come into play if Labor and the Australian Greens could mobilise the "youth vote", the paper said.

The coalition holds 10 seats with a margin of less than two per cent. The most vulnerable are the Liberal-held Boothby in South Australia (0.3 per cent); Hasluck in Western Australia (0.6 per cent); and Aston in Victoria (0.7 per cent).

Brisbane (1.1 per cent) and Solomon in Darwin (1.8 per cent) have a high proportion of students and young workers, while Herbert in far north Queensland (2.1 per cent) and Swan in Perth (2.5 per cent) have very high proportion of young people of voting age.

The Greens would be the main beneficiary of direct enrolment, in effect from July, analysis by Professor Ian McAllister of the Australian National University found. Their first preference vote would rise by 0.6 of a point, while Labor's vote would increase very marginally.

"These are small changes, but they would be magnified in inner city areas where young people are more concentrated," Prof McAllister, co-director of the Australian Election Study, told The Australian.

"They could easily affect the outcome in a tightly held seat. The result in around half a dozen seats could be determined by these enrolment changes."

The past four federal elections may have been decided by voters aged 18-34, about 30 per cent of the electorate, a Whitlam Institute study last year of Newspoll data over 14 years found. And there are 1.5 million "missing" voters - 9.5 per cent of eligible voters, The Australian Electoral Commission estimates.

Prof McAllister analysed four special Newspoll surveys covering 4857 adults. The coalition's primary vote slipped from 40.3 per cent to 38.8 per cent when adding in direct enrolments; Labor's vote edged up a single notch to 34.9 per cent; and the Greens rose from 10.9 per cent to 11.5 per cent.

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Syria rebels seize chunk of Aleppo base

SYRIAN rebels have seized control of a sector of Sheikh Suleiman base west of Aleppo, bringing them closer to holding a large swathe of territory extending to the Turkish border in the north.

The rebels on Sunday took control of Regiment 111 and three other company posts located inside the base after fierce fighting overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"Two rebels and one soldier were killed, while five soldiers were captured. The prisoners said that 140 of their men had fled to the scientific research centre on the base," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Sheikh Suleiman sprawls over nearly 200 hectares of rocky hills about 25km from Aleppo city, an area now almost completely under rebel control.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, 10 were reported killed in regime shelling of the town of Maraayan, while five civilians, including a child, were killed as Ahsam village in Idlib province was shelled, the Observatory said.

The Observatory, which relies on a countrywide network of activists and medics, gave an initial toll of 41 people killed nationwide on Sunday, including 19 civilians.

Meanwhile nine state judges and prosecutors have defected to the opposition.

The Observatory says the latest defectors from the regime of President Bashar al-Assad come from the northern city of Adlib.

In video statement, posted online on Sunday, the nine judges identify themselves by name as one of them reads a joint statement and urges others to break ranks with Assad.

Many government officials and army officers have abandoned the regime to join the opposition since the uprising started in March 2011.

Ex-Prime Minister Riad Hijab is the most senior Syrian official to defect so far.

Syria's opposition is dominated by members of the country's Sunni minority. Assad's regime is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot group of Shi'ite Islam.

In all, more than 42,000 people have been killed since the uprising against al-Assad's rule erupted in March last year, according to the Observatory's figures.

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Famed astronomer Patrick Moore dies

British astronomer and broadcaster Patrick Moore, seen here in a photo from 2000, has died at the age of 89. Source: AP

BRITISH astronomer and broadcaster Patrick Moore died yesterday, according to friends and colleagues. He was 89.

He died at his home in the coastal town of Selsey in southern England, according to a statement. No specific cause of death was given, but he had heart problems and been confined to a wheelchair.

Moore was well known for his long-running BBC television show The Sky at Night, which was credited for popularising astronomy with generations of Britons. He had presented the show for more than half a century.

The statement said he was briefly admitted to hospital last week when it was determined no more treatment would help him. Instead, his wish to spend his final days at home were honoured.

"Over the past few years, Patrick, an inspiration to generations of astronomers, fought his way back from many serious spells of illness and continued to work and write at a great rate, but this time his body was too weak to overcome the infection which set in a few weeks ago," the statement said.

It was signed by various staff members and friends, including Queen guitarist Brian May. May said Moore was irreplaceable and had stirred millions through his broadcasts.

"Patrick will be mourned by the many to whom he was a caring uncle, and by all who loved the delightful wit and clarity of his writings, or enjoyed his fearlessly eccentric persona in public life," May said.

In its obituary, London's Daily Telegraph reported that Moore believed he was the only person to have met the first man to fly, Orville Wright, as well as the first man in space, Russian Yuri Gagarin, and the first man on the moon, the late Neil Armstrong.

Moore, who received a knighthood in 2001, had recently celebrated the 55th anniversary of his program. He only missed one episode, because of an illness caused by food poisoning. He was known for his trademark monocle and his occasional xylophone performances and his frequently professed love of cats.

He wrote dozens of books using a 1908 typewriter he received as a gift when he was 8.

Moore had long expressed an interest in travelling into space, but said he wasn't medically fit to do so - he said he was so large that a special rocket would be needed.
 

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New Zealand slams Kyoto extension

NEW Zealand's climate minister on Sunday strongly defended a decision not to sign an extension of the Kyoto treaty that limits greenhouse gas emissions, saying the pact is outdated, and his country's policy is "ahead of the curve."

At climate negotiations entering their final week in Doha, environmentalists have criticised New Zealand for announcing it wouldn't join a planned extension of the 1997 Kyoto agreement.

"This excessive focus on Kyoto, Kyoto, Kyoto, Kyoto, was fine in the 1990s," Climate Change Minister Tim Groser told The Associated Press in an interview. "But given that it covers only 15 per cent of emissions, I'm sorry, this is not the main game."

Groser said the focus instead should be on creating a new pact that includes the developing countries - echoing a long-held position by the US, which never joined Kyoto.

Most of the world's current emissions come from developing countries, and China is now the world's top emitter. The Kyoto extension, which is supposed to be adopted in Doha, will likely only cover European countries and Australia, which together represent less than 15 per cent of the world's emissions.

"I think it's time for green groups around the world to start to analyse this problem on the basis not of the rhetoric of the '90s, but some numerical analysis of where the problem lies today. Because it's very different," Groser said. "I just think we're ahead of the curve."

Instead of binding targets, New Zealand has offered a voluntary pledge of cutting emissions by between 10 per cent and 20 per cent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.

The Kyoto extension is designed as a stopgap measure until a wider treaty is in place, scheduled for 2020. Developing countries have urged rich countries to make more ambitious emissions cuts until then.

Groser said New Zealand wouldn't firm up its pledge until after the Doha talks. The country wants to know if it can continue using Kyoto's trading mechanism for emissions credits, which some countries say should only be available to those that set emissions targets.

"I have advised my Cabinet, literally I've said to them, 'assume minimum rationally will prevail,"' Groser said. "Then I will come back after this meeting here and make a recommendation as to what unilateral figure we can do."

Climate activists accused Groser of eroding his country's green image.

"New Zealand is in fact behind the play, as they have chosen not to finalise their emissions reductions targets until well after these talks, unlike most other developed countries," said Simon Tapp from the New Zealand Youth Delegation.

A recent UN report showed greenhouse emissions, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, have risen 20 per cent since 2000. Most climate scientists say such emissions are fuelling a warming trend, which could lead to devastating shifts in climate, such as flooding of coastal regions and island nations.

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Bombing in Syria's Homs kills 15

FIFTEEN civilians were killed in a bomb attack on Sunday in a government-held district of the central Syrian city of Homs, state media reported.

"A terrorist attack struck the Hamra district of Homs," the state SANA news agency said, adding that it killed 15 people and wounded 24. State television said it was a car bombing.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights too reported a car bombing in Homs but reported fewer casualties.

"At least seven civilians were killed in a car bomb explosion near the sports stadium," it said, adding that many of the wounded were in a critical condition so the death toll was likely to rise.

Amateur video footage posted online by opposition activists showed the bodies of at least three victims, including a woman buried in the rubble of a building as a car burned not far away.

Another video showed a car turned upside down on a pavement, as other vehicles blazed nearby.

A third video showed an injured child lying in hospital, wailing in pain.

Homs is Syria's third largest city and was one of the cradles of the armed uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, earning it the monicker of "capital of the revolution" from opposition activists.

The city suffered devastating violence early this year but for the past six months the army has preferred to keep mainly Sunni Arab rebel-held districts around the centre under suffocating siege rather than an launching all-out assault.

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Israel called to explain targeting reporters

ISRAEL must provide an "immediate and detailed explanation" for its targeting of journalists during last month's Gaza conflict.

In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Committee to Protect Journalists said it was "gravely concerned that Israeli airstrikes targeted individual journalists and media facilities in the Gaza Strip between November 18 and 20."

The New-York based CPJ noted that two cameramen for Hamas's Al-Aqsa television station and the director of the private Al-Quds Educational Radio were killed by Israel during its eight-day military campaign to halt rocket fire from Gaza.

At least three media buildings, including one housing AFP's Gaza office, were hit during the conflict.

"Israeli officials have broadly asserted that the individuals and facilities had connections to terrorist activity but have disclosed no substantiation for these very serious allegations," the letter reads.

The group says it has made repeated requests to Israel's military and defence ministry seeking explanations.

"We request your government provide an immediate and detailed explanation for its actions," CPJ executive director Joel Simon wrote.

Mr Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said Israel would reply to the CPJ's letter via Israel's US ambassador.

He stressed to AFP that "Israel made every effort possible to avoid killing journalists caught up in the crossfire."

"There were a number of situations where terrorist operatives used journalists as human shields, in those cases we acted as surgically as humanly possible," he said.

He blamed Gaza rulers Hamas, as well as militant group Islamic Jihad for adopting "a deliberate policy of using journalists as human shields."

"People concerned about the wellbeing of journalists should possibly raise these concerns with both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but I suppose one doesn't have high expectations of terrorist groups," he said.

CPJ said all journalists "regardless of the perspective from which they report" were entitled to protection under international law.

"The Israeli government does not have the right to selectively define who is and who is not a journalist based on national identity or media affiliation," the group wrote.

Mr Regev said "nobody is targeted because of their opinions," but his office and the Israeli military could not provide details on the alleged non-media activities of the journalists targeted.

"Many times we cannot share sensitive information with the broad public," army spokesman Aryeh Shalicar said, insisting those targeted were militants.

"Not only were they terrorists, they were using the cover of the press to continue their actions," he said. "Based on our sources, we know exactly who we hit, and stand behind our actions."

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'Now we have a state,' Abbas says

PALESTINIAN president Mahmud Abbas returned to the West Bank on Sunday after winning upgraded UN status for the Palestinians, telling cheering crowds: "Yes, now we have a state."

"Palestine has accomplished a historic achievement at the UN," Abbas added, three days after the United Nations General Assembly granted the Palestinians non-member state observer status in a 138-9 vote.

"The world said in a loud voice... yes to the state of Palestine, yes to Palestine's freedom, yes to Palestine's independence, no to aggression, no to settlements, no to occupation," Abbas told the ecstatic crowd.

Abbas pledged that after the victory at the United Nations, his "first and most important" task would be working to achieve Palestinian unity and reviving efforts to reconcile rival factions Fatah and Hamas.

"We will study over the course of the coming days the steps necessary to achieve reconciliation," he said, as the crowd chanted "The people want the end of the division."

The return was a moment of triumph for Abbas, who last year tried and failed to win the Palestinians full state membership at the United Nations.

The bid stalled in the Security Council, where the veto-wielding United States has vehemently opposed it.

The United States, Israel and a handful of other countries also opposed the Palestinian bid to upgrade their status to that of a non-member observer state, but with no vetoes available in the General Assembly, the measure easily passed.

The move gives the Palestinians access to a range of international institutions, including potentially the International Criminal Court, and raises their international profile after years of stalled peace talks with Israel.

Abbas was received with a full honour guard, descending from his car to walk along a red carpet at the Ramallah presidential headquarters known as the Muqataa, where he shook hands with waiting dignitaries.

He laid a wreath and said a brief prayer at the grave of the iconic late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who is buried within the presidential complex, later dedicating the UN victory to the former president's memory.

Abbas called the approval a milestone in Palestinian history, saying it was the achievement of Palestinians everywhere.

"Our people everywhere, raise your heads up high because you are Palestinians," he said. "You are stronger than the occupation... because you are Palestinians.

"You are stronger than the settlements because you are Palestinians," he added. "You are making history and Palestine will be drawn on the map very soon."

Abbas's return drew supporters from across the West Bank, including Bajis Bani Fadl, from the northern town of Nablus.

"I came to celebrate this day because the Palestinian leadership accomplished a great achievement, and this is a joy we haven't experienced in our lives," he told AFP.

"President Abbas... took us from a historical stage to a new stage, although it won't be easy to become a state on the ground," Mohammed Bani Audeh, 54, added.

"I know that the pressures will increase on us now, but these pressures don't mean anything, particularly if we achieve our unity."

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Rudd, Turnbull voters' choice, poll shows

ABSENCE has made voters' hearts grow fonder for Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, who hold big leads over Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, a Galaxy poll shows.

After a brutal week in federal parliament, Mr Rudd is preferred leader by 27 per cent of voters, followed by Mr Turnbull with 23 per cent.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard trails with 18 per cent support as better leader and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at 17 per cent, according to the poll published in The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Rudd and Mr Turnbull enjoy the most support from each others' parties with 18 per cent of coalition supporters tipping Mr Rudd as the better leader while 13 per cent of Labor people think Mr Turnbull is the better leader.

Both former leaders' popularity with voters has bounced back after their standings sank before each was rolled by their parties.

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No US budget deal without tax hikes

LEAD White House negotiator Timothy Geithner insisted Sunday there would be no deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" unless Republicans allowed tax rates on the wealthiest Americans to rise.

Talks to avoid the dreaded "fiscal cliff" are at a dangerous impasse after President Barack Obama's opening gambit in the high-stakes negotiations was shot down by leading Republicans on Thursday as "ridiculous."

Markets are jittery as, without a deal by the year-end, a poison pill of tax hikes and massive spending cuts, including slashes to the military, comes into effect with potentially catastrophic effects for the fragile US economy.

Budget negotiations go right to the heart of ideological differences between Democrats and Republicans on the size and scope of government, but the biggest sticking point has clearly been on tax rates for high-earners.

Obama campaigned on a platform of raising taxes on individuals who make more than $200,000 per year and on families that rake in more than $250,000, as a way of raising extra revenue to tame the deficit.

Republicans insist that raising taxes on the wealthy would be counter-productive, hurt small business owners, slow economic growth and dampen job creation.

"There's not going to be an agreement without rates going up. There's not," Geithner told CNN's State of the Union program, saying the ball was in the Republicans' court to propose a counter-offer to the Obama plan.

Republicans say they are ready to raise more revenue from wealthy Americans, but want to do so by closing tax loopholes and limiting deductions rather than by raising income tax rates.

"Increasing tax rates draws money away from our economy that needs to be invested in our economy to put the American people back to work," Republican House Speaker John Boehner said on Friday. "It's the wrong approach."

Geithner, the tough-talking treasury secretary chosen as Obama's pointman in the talks, took to the Sunday morning news shows to step up pressure on Republicans to propose a plan that embraces the spirit of compromise.

"What we did is put forward a very comprehensive, very carefully designed mix of savings and tax rates to help us put us back on a path to stabilising our debt, fixing our debt and living within our means," he said.

"We don't expect them to like all of those proposals. But all we can do is lay out what we believe in and then ask them to come back to us and tell us what they would prefer to do."

Geithner said the two sides were still "far apart," but expressed hope they were moving closer together.

Former Republican president George W Bush introduced across-the-board tax cuts that were framed as "temporary" measures back in 2001 and 2003.

The top income tax rate, which now stands at 35 percent, will automatically revert to 39.6 percent at the beginning of 2013 unless there is a new budget deal.

Obama is urging the Republicans to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for all but the top bracket, roughly 98 percent of Americans, and campaigned on this promise before winning re-election on November 6.

Republican soul-searching in the wake of Mitt Romney's decisive electoral defeat has seen several leading figures indicate a willingness to accept a deal that includes more revenue, but only by ending loopholes in the tax code and in return for cuts in funding to Democrats' beloved welfare programs.

"They're in a hard place. And they're having a tough time trying to figure out what they can do, what they can get support from their members for," Geithner said.

"If they are going to force higher rates on virtually all Americans because they're unwilling to let tax rates go up on 2 percent of Americans, then, I mean that's the choice they're going to have to make," said Geithner.

"But they'll own the responsibility for the damage."

The year-end deadline is the result of legislation passed when Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a previous long-term deficit and budget deal, and was meant to concentrate minds of lawmakers and spur compromise.

The parties are also feuding about where to cut expenditures, with some Republicans opposed to any trimming of the military budget and Democrats guarding social safety net entitlement programs.

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WikiLeaks suspect's trial date postponed

THE trial date for a US Army private accused of passing a trove of secret documents to WikiLeaks has been pushed back from February to March next year, a military judge said Sunday.

The court-martial of Bradley Manning, 24, charged with the most serious security breach in American history, previously had been scheduled to begin on February 4.

But the judge, Colonel Denise Lind, announced at a pre-trial hearing north of Washington in Fort Meade, Maryland that more time was needed to handle various motions from both the defence and prosecution.

Due to last about six weeks, the court-martial could begin March 6 or 18, depending on the pace of legal proceedings, the judge said.

The latest round of pre-trial hearings that began Tuesday has focused on Manning's detention for nine months at a brig in Quantico, Virginia.

The defence argues the case should be dismissed because of what it calls unduly harsh treatment Manning received at the US Marine Corps jail, where he was held under strict "suicide watch" measures against the advice of two military psychiatrists.

The government maintains he did not suffer illegal punishment and that commanders wanted to ensure Manning did not take his life.

Legal experts say it is unlikely the charges will be dismissed based on the allegations over Manning's detention, but the judge could take the issue into account during sentencing, if the army private is found guilty as charged.

If convicted on all 22 counts, including a charge of "aiding the enemy," Manning could spend the rest of his life in prison.

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NAPLAN stress causes vomiting, insomnia

STRESS-RELATED vomiting and insomnia are affecting children in the lead-up to the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), a new study shows.

In the landmark University of Melbourne study, for which 8353 teachers and principals were surveyed, concerns about the "unintended side effects" of NAPLAN were raised.

These concerns included teaching to the test and a negative effect on student health and teacher morale, Fairfax reported.

About half the teachers surveyed said NAPLAN practive tests were held once a week in the five months leading up to the test.

About 90 per cent said some students felt stressed before the test, leading to crying, vomiting, insomnia and absenteeism.

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Violation of Gaza truce a sin: cleric

A LEADING Islamic cleric in the Gaza Strip has ruled it a sin to violate the recent ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group that governs the Palestinian territory - according a religious legitimacy to the truce and giving the Gaza government strong backing to enforce it.

The fatwa, or religious edict, was issued late Saturday by Suleiman al-Daya, a cleric respected by both ultra-conservative Salafis and Hamas. Salafi groups oppose political accommodations with Israel.

"Honouring the truce, which was sponsored by our Egyptian brethren, is the duty of each and every one of us. Violating it shall constitute a sin," the fatwa read.

The truce, which was struck on Wednesday to bring an end to an eight-day Israeli offensive against Gaza militants who fired rockets into Israel, remains fragile, however, and details beyond the initial ceasefire have not yet been worked out.

The spokesman for Gaza's Hamas government, Taher al-Nunu, told reporters on Sunday that Hamas is committed to the truce.

"The government reaffirmed its blessing to the agreement sponsored by Cairo and emphasised that it will work to the internal Palestinian consensus and the supreme national interest," he said, following a government meeting.

Hamas demands that Israel and Egypt lift all restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Palestinian territory. The restrictions have been imposed since the Islamists seized the territory in 2007.

Israel has eased its full-fledged blockade in recent years, and some goods enter Gaza through smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt. But Israel has continued to impose strict restrictions on exports and the import of construction materials, which has severely hampered the development of Gaza's battered economy.

Israel is expected to link a significant easing of the blockade to Hamas's willingness to stop smuggling weapons into Gaza and producing them there. A top Hamas official said on Saturday that the group wouldn't stop arming itself, suggesting that talks on a new border deal would not go smoothly.

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Driver dies as US band's bus overturns

SWISS police say a bus carrying the Marcus Miller Band, an American jazz group, has overturned - killing the driver and injuring several musicians.

Police in the central canton (state) of Uri said the German-registered private bus tipped over on Sunday as it drove into a bend and came to a rest on its side.

A police statement said the bus was carrying 13 people: two drivers and 11 members of the band, who were on their way from Monte Carlo to the Dutch town of Hengelo.

One of the drivers suffered fatal injuries. Several people were injured and taken to hospitals; police say none of them have life-threatening injuries.

The cause wasn't immediately clear. It appears no other vehicles were involved.

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China in first aircraft carrier landing

CHINA has conducted the first landing of a fighter jet on its new aircraft carrier in a move that extends Beijing's ability to project its growing military might in territorial disputes.

The Chinese-made J-15 made the successful landing on the Liaoning, a former Soviet carrier, during recent exercises, the defence ministry said in a report on Sunday on the flight tests.

The Liaoning went into service in September in a symbolic milestone for China's growing military muscle that comes at a time when Beijing is increasingly embroiled in a series of territorial disputes with its neighbours.

"The successful landing ... has always been seen as a symbol of the operating combat capability for an aircraft carrier," Zhang Junshe, a vice-director at the military's Naval Affairs Research Institute, told state television.

"This is a landmark event for China's aircraft carrier ... and (moves it) one step closer to combat readiness."

Video carried by China Central Television showed a tail hook on the rear of the J-15 catching hold of a cable on the deck of the aircraft carrier as the jet landed and slowed to a halt.

China had not previously announced that its navy possessed such highly technical cable landing technology.

The J-15 had also successfully taken off from the aircraft, the ministry said.

The J-15 is a Chinese designed multi-purpose carrier-borne fighter jet based on Russia's Sukoi 33, equipped with Russian engines and capable of carrying precision-guided bombs, press reports said.

Since the carrier entered service, the crew have completed more than 100 training and test programs, the ministry said.

China bought the stripped-down 300-metre carrier from Ukraine nearly 10 years ago and refurbished it at the northeastern port of Dalian.

Construction of the vessel, formerly known as the Varyag, was commissioned by the former Soviet Union more than 20 years ago, but work halted with the sudden collapse of the Soviet bloc.

The Liaoning - named for the northeastern province that includes Dalian - is not expected to be fully operational for another three years at least.

Over the past year, China has become increasingly assertive over its long-time maritime territorial claims as its economic and military power have expanded, causing rising anxiety among its neighbours.

Tensions in the East China Sea have risen dramatically in recent months over islands known as the Diaoyus to Beijing and claimed by Tokyo as the Senkakus.

China is locked in a similar row with Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

At a key Communist Party congress earlier this month, outgoing President Hu Jintao urged the nation to push forward fast-paced military modernisation and set the goal of becoming a "maritime power".

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Newman says rest of LNP MPs are loyal

QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman has refused to say whether he's checking his MPs loyalties after one defected to Katter's Australian Party (KAP).

Veteran MP Ray Hopper, the member for the rural seat of Condamine, resigned from the Liberal National Party (LNP) on Saturday night to join the KAP.

Mr Newman says Monday afternoon's party room meeting will give all MPs a chance to discuss the matter.

"It'll give people an opportunity to express, no doubt their dismay about the way the member of Condamine has let down his people," he told reporters on Sunday.

But when asked if he'll be seeking loyalty pledges from MPs, he said: "My people are totally committed to getting the economy of Queensland going."

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said it's likely a lot of phone calls were being made.

"I think it's going to be a very interesting party room meeting," she said.

Mr Hopper said he left the LNP because it's not governing for regional communities and "is at war with itself".

Cabinet will also meet on Monday morning.

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Merkel defends snip with angry Jews

ANGELA Merkel sought to ease the concerns of Germany's Jews over a disputed ruling against circumcision.

Ms Merkel became the first chancellor to address the Jewish community's annual council meeting in a bid to ease concerns about the ruling.

"The respecting of religious ritual is a fundamental good," she told the annual gathering of the Central Council of Jews in Germany in the western city of Frankfurt.

"I am delighted ... that there is a lively Jewish community in Germany," added the chancellor.

In a ruling published in June, a court in the western city of Cologne judged the rite to be tantamount to grievous bodily harm, prompting international outrage and calls for more legal clarity.

The Cologne ruling united Jewish and Muslim groups in opposition and German diplomats admitted privately that it had proved "disastrous" for Germany's international image, particularly in light of its Nazi past.

Merkel was reported to have cautioned that Germany risked becoming a "laughing stock" if circumcision were banned in the country.

Last month, Merkel's cabinet passed a draft law to permit circumcision and clarify the legal situation.

She said she believed it to be a "balanced text".

"I hope it can be agreed in the Bundestag before Christmas," she added, referring to the German lower house of parliament.

The new bill stipulated certain provisos for a boy to be circumcised.

Among these conditions, the draft law said the practice must be carried out "professionally" and "with the most effective pain relief".

An exception must also be made in individual cases if there are health risks, for example if the infant is suspected of being a haemophiliac.

The head of the central committee for Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, thanked Merkel for her assistance in what he described as "difficult times."

"It is important that German politicians acted and came up with legislation that we can live with," Graumann said.

"This visit has done us good in a time that is difficult for us," he added.

Merkel also used the visit to reiterate Berlin's support of Israel following eight days of violence in and around Gaza, which left 166 Palestinians and six Israelis dead.

"Every country has the right to defend itself. This is not only the right but also the duty of every government," added Merkel.

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Europe mulls Greece 'haircut' in 2015

EUROZONE finance ministers are considering a possible "haircut" for Greece in 2015, a German newspaper reports, in a bid to reduce the recession-wracked country's debt mountain.

Other eurozone countries and institutions like the European Central Bank could be ready to discuss writing down a part of their Greek debt holdings to put Greece's debt on a more sustainable footing, said the Welt am Sonntag.

The issue was discussed at a secret meeting of ministers and officials in Paris on Monday, the paper said, without citing sources.

Such a haircut might be used as an added incentive for Greece to carry out the reforms required in its second aid package, which runs out in 2014, according to the Welt am Sonntag.

Germany has been firmly opposed to taking a loss on its holdings of Greek debt, unwilling to ask German taxpayers to foot the bill for keeping Athens in the eurozone.

The ECB has also ruled out such a move, saying it is tantamount to financing Greece directly, strictly forbidden by its founding treaties.

But the Spiegel newsweekly reported that the ECB, as well as the International Monetary Fund, now considered a haircut unavoidable.

Nevertheless, Joerg Asmussen, a member of the ECB's executive board, dismissed the plan.

"To close the financing gap, we need a package of measures that would include, among other things, a clear reduction of the interest rate on aid and a debt buy-back program for Greece," Asmussen told the Bild newspaper.

"A haircut does not belong to this (package)," the German central banker said in comments to appear in Monday's edition of the newspaper.

By writing off half of their Greek debt holdings, eurozone governments and institutions could drive down Greece's debt to 70 per cent of output in 2020, compared to 144 per cent, wrote Spiegel.

Eurozone ministers meet on Monday for their third effort to agree on unlocking a 31.2 billion euro ($A39 billion) slice of aid for Greece as it teeters on the verge of bankruptcy.

Both Welt am Sonntag and Spiegel wrote that the haircut issue would not be decided at Monday's talks.

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Majority of Britons would vote to leave EU

A MAJORITY of Britons would vote to leave the European Union if given the chance, according to a survey.

The Optimum Research poll in The Observer newspaper found that 34 per cent would definitely vote to quit the 27-member bloc and 22 per cent would probably do so, giving a total of 56 per cent that would opt to leave the EU.

Eleven per cent would definitely vote to remain in the union, while a further 19 per cent said they would probably cote to stay in - a total of 30 per cent.

Some 14 per cent said they did not know.

Some 28 per cent of those polled said Britain's membership of the EU was generally a good thing, while 45 per cent said it was generally a bad thing.

EU leaders gather in Brussels on Thursday to try to thrash out the bloc's budget for the 2014-2020 period, at which Britain will argue for a real terms freeze.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is pushing for a freeze in the trillion-euro budget, having threatened to veto any rise in spending.

Voters from Cameron's Conservative Party were the most in favour of leaving the EU (68 per cent), followed by the opposition Labour Party (44 per cent) and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats (39 per cent).

The Conservatives and the Lib Dems form Britain's coalition government.

The poll also found that 39 per cent would vote for Labour in a general election. The Conservatives were on 32 per cent, the anti-EU UK Independence Party on 10 per cent, the Lib Dems on eight per cent and other parties on 11 per cent.

Optimum Research surveyed 1957 adults online from Tuesday to Thursday.

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Chinese street kids found dead in dumpster

THE bodies of five street children have been found in a dumpster in southwest China after they climbed inside it to escape the night-time cold, state media report.

The five boys aged about 10 died of carbon monoxide poisoning after apparently burning charcoal inside the trash container to keep warm, Xinhua news agency said.

A trash collector discovered the bodies on Friday morning in the dumpster in the city of Bijie in Guizhou province, according to the Beijing News.

Autopsies showed carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause of death, Xinhua quoted sources in a local branch of the ruling communist party as saying.

It said leftover burnt charcoal was found inside the dumpster, indicating that the boys might have been burning charcoal for heat before they died.

Calls to Bijie police and city officials on Sunday went unanswered.

The Friday night low temperature in the mountainous city was 6C.

Photos uploaded onto the internet showed that the dumpster is about 1.5 metres by 1.3 meters and has an airtight lid, Xinhua reported.

The tragedy has sparked an outcry on the net, it said. A post on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like microblogging service, had more than 2.5 million hits as of Sunday evening.

While some users accused the local government of negligence, others said the parents of the children were also to blame, according to the news agency.

"It reminded me of The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. Isn't it that such things only happen in fairy tales?" wrote one user called Saludika.

"What a cold world this must be for the five children!" said another, Lu_Yao.

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Myanmar announces new prisoner amnesty

THE president of Myanmar (Burma) has ordered a new prisoner amnesty ahead of a historic visit to the country by US President Barack Obama.

State television said President Thein Sein had ordered 66 detainees released, but it was not clear whether any political prisoners would be among them.

A Home Ministry official said Thein Sein signed the amnesty order on Friday, but the prisoners will be freed on Monday.

The presidential amnesty was the second announced this week.

On Thursday, Thein Sein announced an amnesty for 452 prisoners, but the move did not include prisoners of conscience and prompted activists to step up calls for the government to release those believed to remain behind bars.

Myanmar's government has long insisted that all prisoners are criminals and does not acknowledge the existence of political detainees. However, the reformist new government, praised for its moves toward democracy, has released hundreds of people this year who were jailed under the former military junta.

A separate press release, issued on Sunday, said the government would initiate "initiate a process between the Ministry of Home Affairs and interested parties to devise a transparent mechanism to review remaining prisoner cases of concern by the end of December 2012".

The news came one day ahead of a visit on Monday by Obama, who will become the first sitting American president to visit the once-pariah nation.

Obama is due to meet Thein Sein, as well as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi before flying to Cambodia later in the day.

Thein Sein's administration has made freedom for political prisoners one of the centrepieces of its reform agenda. Earlier prisoner releases helped convince Western nations, including the United States, to ease sanctions they had imposed against the previous military regime.

Under the now-defunct junta, rights groups said more than 2000 activists and government critics were wrongfully imprisoned.

Suu Kyi's party says at least 330 political prisoners remain incarcerated.

Obama said on Sunday in Thailand that his visit to Myanmar is an acknowledgement of the democratic transition under way but not an endorsement of the country's government.

Obama's words were aimed at countering critics who say his trip to the country is premature.

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Israel facing 'millions' of cyber-attacks

THE Israeli government has admitted it has become the victim of a mass cyber-warfare campaign with millions of attempts to hack state websites since the start of its Gaza offensive four days ago.

Speaking ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said the government was now waging war on "a second front - of cyber attacks against Israel".

Steinitz said in the past four days, Israel had "deflected 44 million cyber attacks on government websites. All the attacks were thwarted except for one, which targeted a specific website that was down for six or seven minutes."

His remarks came a day after the online activist group Anonymous claimed to have downed dozens of websites of Israeli state agencies and a top bank in protest over the Jewish state's deadly air assault.

It also comes as both Israel and the Palestinians try exploiting the social networks in a furious effort to win over public opinion amid the worst outbreak of Middle East violence in four years.

Steinitz did not say who was responsible, but said the government had successfully managed to deflect almost every attack, thereby avoiding serious disruption or other damage.

On Saturday, Anonymous claimed to have downed or erased the databases of nearly 700 Israeli private and public websites, including that of the Bank of Jerusalem finance house.

It also claimed to have briefly downed the foreign ministry website in protest over an alleged Israeli threat to cut the Gaza Strip's internet communications.

"For far too long, Anonymous has stood by with the rest of the world and watched in despair the barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment of the Palestinian people in the so called 'Occupied Territories' by the Israel Defence Force," Anonymous said in a statement.

"But when the government of Israel publicly threatened to sever all internet and other telecommunications into and out of Gaza they crossed a line in the sand."

Steinitz made no direct reference to Anonymous and failed to specify if the government was dealing with a co-ordinated attack. He also refused to disclose which countries these efforts were being conducted from.

But the minister stressed that the government had come up with back-up for "essential websites" should they be taken down.

"This is an unprecedented attack, and our success has been greater than we anticipated," Steinitz said.

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