Syrian opposition rejects Assad plan

THE opposition Syrian National Coalition rejects a reconciliation plan outlined by President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, spokesman Walid al-Bunni has told AFP by phone.

"We said at the founding of the National Coalition that we want a political solution, but ... there are now over 60,000 martyrs. The Syrians did not make all those sacrifices in order to bolster this tyrannical regime," he said.

Bunni said Sunday's speech was directed primarily at the "international community, which engaged in a real effort to create a political solution that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people and ends the tyranny of the Assad family regime".

Assad will not accept "any initiative that does not restore stability to his regime and put him at the helm of control", Bunni said.

The president, he added, has "excluded the possibility of any dialogue with the rebels".

"He wants negotiating partners of his own choosing and will not accept any initiative that could meet the aspirations of the Syrian people or ultimately lead to his departure and the dismantling of his regime."

Assad's call to dialogue "excludes those who revolt" and is addressed to "those who did not rise up or who will gladly accept the return of stability despite all the sacrifices made by the Syrian people", Bunni said.

Assad in his speech denounced the opposition as "slaves" of the West and called for national dialogue to draft a new charter and pave the way for legislative polls.

He said the conflict was not one between the government and the opposition but between the "nation and its enemies".

"Just because we have not found a partner, it does not mean we are not interested in a political solution, but that we did not find a partner," he told the audience.

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Myanmar rebels say troops attack HQ

ETHNIC Kachin rebels in Myanmar (Burma) have accused government troops of launching two artillery attacks against the city that serves as their headquarters, but there have been no casualties or significant damage.

Army forces based at a nearby outpost fired at least seven 105mm shells at the northern city of Laiza, four rounds on Sunday morning and three more before dusk, rebel spokesman La Nan told The Associated Press.

A senior government official denied the accusation.

Fighting has wracked northern Myanmar since a ceasefire that held for nearly two decades broke down in June 2011 after rebels refused to abandon a strategic base near a hydropower plant that is a joint venture with a Chinese company.

The conflict has forced around 100,000 Kachin from their homes since then, and many are in camps near Laiza, which is held by the rebels and located near the Chinese border.

Fighting between the two sides appears to have intensified in recent weeks, with the government pounding rebel positions with helicopter gunships and fighter jets.

La Nan, a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Army, said it was the second artillery attack on Laiza since December 19.

Another rebel official, who declined to be identified because he is not a spokesman for the insurgents, said the shells fired on Sunday morning fell near several homes that were hit by shrapnel but not significantly damaged. Rebel forces did not return fire, he said.

Tension with ethnic minorities fighting for greater autonomy in Myanmar is considered one of the biggest major long-term challenges for reformist President Thein Sein, who inherited power in 2011 from the army, which ruled for almost half a century.

The Kachin, like Myanmar's other ethnic minorities, have long sought greater autonomy from the central government. They are the only major ethnic rebel group that has not reached a truce with Thein Sein's administration.

The recent fighting in Kachin state escalated on Christmas Day, when the rebels rejected a government demand that supply convoys be allowed to reach an army base, contending they carried ammunition that could be used to attack their nearby headquarters. The government then used fighter planes and helicopters to mount attacks and seized one of the guerrillas' hilltop outposts.

The skirmishes have raised fears among rebels and their supporters that the army is readying to launch an offensive on Laiza, but as recently as New Year's Eve, a presidential adviser said the military had given assurances it would not do so. The army says it has launched recent air attacks to clear a road of rebels so it could supply a base.

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More hot, dry weather for Tassie

AUTHORITIES are warning more hot weather in Tasmania could rekindle the danger level of bushfires that have ravaged the southeast of the state.

The island state won't see a repeat of the record temperatures of last Friday when fires on the Tasman Peninsula, in the Derwent Valley and on the east coast claimed more than 100 properties.

But above average temperatures are expected with Hobart forecast to reach 29C on Monday and Launceston 30.

Temperatures will stay high until Wednesday and are also expected to be above average again in the days following.

"While we hopefully will not experience those once-in-a-generation, horrific, catastrophic weather conditions that we faced on Friday, there isn't a decent rain ahead of us," emergency services minister David O'Byrne said.

"There are still some weather conditions later this week where the temperatures will rise again ... which will mean not only the existing fires but other bushfire prone areas of Tasmania will be under threat."

Fire chiefs say they can't predict when the massive blazes in the state will be brought under control.

Meanwhile, police will continue their property-by-property search for bodies on Monday.

Acting Commissioner Scott Tilyard says around 100 people are unaccounted for but many may have failed to register with authorities.

Around 400 more evacuees were due to be ferried by boat from the Tasman Peninsula on Sunday night, while police were investigating whether it was safe to escort cars out on the closed Arthur Highway.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will visit the state on Monday.

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Vic police shoot at suspected stolen car

POLICE in Melbourne are investigating if a woman with a gunshot wound was involved in an incident in which officers fired shots at an allegedly stolen car.

Two officers were walking towards a black Commodore in Chifley Drive, Maribyrnong about 12.40am (AEDT) on Monday, police said.

But when the car was driven at them they both fired shots at it, before it got away.

A short time later, a woman presented at Sunshine Hospital, where she is being treated for a gunshot wound.

Police are investigating if there are any links.

As with all police shootings, Professional Standards Command will oversee the investigation, police say.

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Tehran air pollution leaves 4460 dead

AIR pollution in Tehran has left 4460 people dead in a year, an Iranian health official says in reports, with another sounding the alarm over a high dose of carcinogens in domestically made petrol.

Hassan Aqajani, an adviser to the health minister, made the announcement on state television on Sunday, and said the Tehran residents died over a year from March 2011.

High air pollution is a constant woe for the eight million residents in Tehran. It forced the city's closure on Saturday, the second time in a month.

"In recent days, the number of patients who have visited Tehran hospitals with heart problems has increased by 30 per cent," Aqajani said.

Tehran's pollution is mainly blamed on bumper-to-bumper traffic in a city wedged between two mountains which trap fumes. But major Iranian cities also struggle with pollution on a seasonal basis.

Pollution is also exacerbated by increasing reliance on domestic production of petrol of a lower grade, and therefore more polluting, a byproduct of Western sanctions on Iran's fuel imports.

Youssef Rashidi, director of Tehran's air quality monitoring services, on Sunday warned carcinogens in Iranian-made petrol is higher than international standards.

"Based on Euro 4 standard the amount of carcinogens in petrol should be less than one per cent but the level of our domestically produced petrol is between two and three per cent," Rashidi said in remarks reported by Bahar newspaper.

The level of sulphur in the petrol is three times higher than the standard, he said.

Iran produces around 60 million litres of petrol on a daily basis, corresponding roughly to its national consumption, according to figures from the oil ministry.

Officials have promised to increase the production of higher grade petrol with Euro 4 and 5 standards, used in European countries, from nine million litres per day to around 25 million by March.

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Abbas orders use of 'State of Palestine'

PALESTINIAN president Mahmoud Abbas has given orders for work to begin on new passports, ID cards, driver's licences and stamps reading State of Palestine, official media say.

The decree, carried by the official WAFA news agency on Sunday, came after the Palestinians' successful bid late last year for non-member observer state status at the United Nations over intense Israeli and US opposition.

Abbas said the changed language on official documents would help strengthen the Palestinian state "on the ground and build its institutions ... and its sovereignty over the land".

Already last week, he ordered the foreign ministry and embassies around the world to begin using "State of Palestine" in official correspondence.

Previously, official documents issued by Abbas's government, including passports and other identification documents, had been labelled as issued by the Palestinian Authority, which he heads.

Israel has criticised the Palestinians for their successful bid for enhanced UN status, saying Palestinian statehood can only be achieved through bilateral talks with the Jewish state.

The Israeli foreign ministry declined to comment on the latest Palestinian move.

The Palestinians say the UN upgrade will strengthen their position in negotiations with Israel and is a complement to any future talks.

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Indon anti-terror killings spark concerns

INDONESIA'S police anti-terror squad has killed seven suspected militants in recent days, triggering renewed allegations the force is not trying to take suspects alive - a trend that appears to be fuelling the very extremism the predominantly Muslim country is trying to counter.

Police spokesman Brigadier General Boy Rafli Amar said on Sunday no shots were fired against officers during three related raids on Friday and Saturday in eastern Indonesia, but the suspects in at least one of the locations had explosives that were "ready" to be detonated.

He said officers from the anti-terror squad, known as Densus 88, had followed procedures because the suspects were endangering their lives, but gave few details.

Haris Azhar, chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, an independent human rights group, said it appeared the suspected militants were victims of "extrajudicial killings" and called for an independent investigation.

"I'm worried about the deteriorating public sympathy for police who continue to use violence," he said, alleging some suspects in the past have been shot in front of their children.

"There has never been any evaluation of Densus's actions. It seems the police brutality has contributed to the growing of terrorism."

Densus 88 was established after the 2002 Bali bombings with American and Australian financial and technical assistance, which it still receives.

It has been instrumental in the arrests of hundreds of militants over the past 10 years and is credited with reducing the threat of further attacks on Western interests in the country. Small groups of militants, however, have continued to attack police officers and Christians.

Since the squad's establishment, Densus officers have killed more than 70 suspects. Like in other countries, some Indonesian militants have blown themselves up when police officers have approached them and show a willingness to go down fighting, making apprehending them especially dangerous. Police figures show militants killed 10 officers in 2012 in incidents around the country.

Taufik Andrie, research director for the Institute for International Peace Building, said it appeared police officers hunting down militants suspected of being involved in the murder of their colleagues were not interested in taking prisoners.

"It is a cycle of violence, with each side looking for revenge," Andrie said. "There is a suspicion that some policemen are of the mind that the best kind of de-radicalisation is through killing people."

The way in which the killings by Densus 88 are used to rally support for extremism was on display on Sunday at a public meeting of radicals in Jakarta.

While those present didn't need fresh reasons to despise or distrust the state, speakers held up the killings of the seven suspects as just the latest example of police brutality.

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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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