Polish composer Wojciech Kilar dies

WOJCIECH Kilar, a Polish pianist and composer of classical music and scores for many films, including Roman Polanski's Oscar-winning The Pianist and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, has died. He was 81.

The composer died Sunday in his hometown of Katowice, southern Poland, following a long illness, according to Jerzy Kornowicz, head of the Association of Polish Composers.

Kornowicz said, "The power and the message of his music, as well as the noble character of Wojciech Kilar as a person, will stay in my memory forever."

Kilar's main love was composing symphonies and concertos, and he always put that above movies, even though he wrote the scores of dozens of films. He drew inspiration from Polish folk music and religious prayers and hymns.

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Drive-by shooting and bomb in Iraq kill 6

A DRIVE-BY shooting and a bomb in Iraq have killed at least six people.

Police say gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on Sunday at a check point run by anti-al-Qaeda, pro-government Sunni militiamen in Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib, killing four and wounding three.

The Sunni militia, known as the Awakening Council, was formed by the US forces during the height of the insurgency. They are seen as traitors by al-Qaeda local branch and other militant groups.

The officer added that two civilians were killed and eight wounded when a bomb exploded in an outdoor market in the capital's western Jihad neighbourhood.

Medical officials have confirmed the figures.

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French court upholds high income tax

FRENCH President Francois Hollande has finally got his super tax on high incomes with the country's highest court upholding the law's latest version.

Hollande originally promised a 75 per cent tax on income over 1 million euros ($A1.55 million).

It would have affected a tiny number of taxpayers but became a symbol of his campaign promise to make France fairer for the middle class.

But the constitutional council threw out that tax as unfair.

Hollande's administration rewrote the tax in the 2014 budget.

It is now a 50 per cent tax paid by the employer and doesn't reduce employees' earnings.

The council ruled on Sunday that the tax was constitutional.

In a series of rulings on the budget, it declared a change to the wealth tax that would have taxed latent revenue unconstitutional.

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