Chavez heir vows probe into leader's death

VENEZUELA'S acting president, Nicolas Maduro, says his mentor, Hugo Chavez, fought for his life "until the last second" and called for an inquiry into the leader's death.

"Until the last second of his life he believed that he would live and he wanted to live," Maduro told AFP in an exclusive interview.

A visibly emotional Maduro recalled how he had visited Chavez in the military hospital on March 5 intending to discuss matters of state with the ailing leader, who had not appeared in public since December.

"I was carrying a red folder with all of these pending decisions. I thought I would spend the day discussing various topics. So there I was with the folder. And there he was, probably thinking the same thing.

"He always wanted to live. He had this gigantic optimism and faith in life," Maduro said.

Hours later, the government announced the death of Chavez, a larger-than-life presence who governed oil-rich Venezuela for 14 years and came to embody a resurgent Latin American left.

Maduro reiterated his intention to launch an investigation into Chavez's death. Hours before Chavez passed away, Maduro, then vice-president, had hinted that "historic enemies" had been behind the leftist leader's death, a veiled reference to the United States.

"It's a very delicate subject," Maduro told AFP.

"I personally believe there has to be a thorough investigation. You know that some world powers have tested weapons for spreading viruses or cancer, and I believe Comandante Chavez was infected," he said.

"It's a personal conviction. I have many reasons and a lot of information which leads me to believe it."

Venezuelans will elect a successor to Chavez on April 14, with Maduro carrying the late leader's mantle and facing off against Henrique Capriles, the opposition candidate who lost to Chavez in October.

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Afghan kit removal to cost US $5bn

THE US operation to remove military hardware and vehicles from Afghanistan as troops withdraw after 12 years of war will cost between $US5 billion ($A4.8 billion) and $US6 billion, officials say.

Among statistics released by the military about the process known as a "retrograde" was that 25,000 vehicles have been shipped out of Afghanistan in the past year and another 25,000 remain in the country.

About 100,000 containers are also still in Afghanistan, and will be used to remove mountains of equipment ranging from fighting gear to fitness machines, furniture and computers.

"The retrograde from Afghanistan is one of the most challenging military transportation operations in history in terms of scale and complexity," Brigadier-General Steven Shapiro said in an email.

"Our number of vehicles in Afghanistan has dropped by nearly half in the past year."

Shapiro, the commanding general of 1st Theater Sustainment Command, said decisions were being made on what equipment was left for the Afghan army and police to take on the fight against Taliban insurgents.

"Ground commanders are able to nominate this equipment as they assess the needs and maintenance capabilities of their Afghan partners and numbers will vary," he said.

"The figures of five to six billion dollars corresponds to the total cost of retrograde from 2012 through 2014, and they're constantly being re-evaluated."

Most of the hardware will be flown out of land-locked Afghanistan or taken by road to the Pakistani port of Karachi, though the route has been hit by militant attacks and was temporarily closed by spats between Washington and Islamabad.

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Tanzanian building collapse toll hits 25

THE death toll from a building that collapsed in Tanzania's economic capital, Dar es Salaam, has reached 25, officials said, as hope faded of finding those missing two days after the accident.

"Six bodies were found between Saturday night and this afternoon. This brings the total number confirmed dead to 25," Dar es Salaam regional commissioner Saidi Mecky Sadicky told AFP on Sunday, updating an earlier toll of 19.

"The rescue exercise is still going on slowly. It is complicated and there is rain, but they will continue working there until every point is sifted."

Several dozen people are still missing around the site, which was littered with huge chunks of concrete, and Sadicky said earlier there was "little hope to find anyone alive".

It has been more than 48 hours since the last of 18 survivors were pulled from the remains of the 16-storey building.

Hundreds of rescuers have worked non-stop in search of those believed to be still trapped in the rubble from the shell of the tower.

Sadicky said between 60 and 70 people were reported to have been at or near the construction site on Friday morning when the building collapsed, meaning that between 17 and 27 people could still be trapped.

Hundreds of people, including residents and army rescuers, clawed through piles of rubble in the hunt for survivors, alongside earthmovers and excavators.

Chinese construction firms in the city were told by their embassy to lend extra equipment to aid the rescue effort and Chinese workers have been at the site instructing operators of excavators and forklifts that were sifting through the rubble.

Local residents have turned out to supply rescuers with food, water and medication.

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Egypt comedian bailed on insult complaints

EGYPTIAN satirist Bassem Youssef has been released on bail after nearly five hours of questioning over alleged insults to the president and religion, highlighting concerns over freedom of expression in post-revolt Egypt.

Youssef, whose weekly program, Albernameg (The Show), has pushed the boundaries of local television with its merciless critique of those in power, was ordered to pay 15,000 Egyptian pounds (about $A2100) pending investigation into the complaints, judicial sources told AFP.

On Twitter, Youssef confirmed the bail conditions, saying they were for three lawsuits. He said no date has been set for questioning into a fourth legal complaint.

On Sunday morning, Youssef continued to challenge the authorities even as he arrived at the prosecutor's office.

He made his way through a throng of cameras and supporters, to pose with an enormous version of a hat worn by President Mohamed Morsi earlier this month when he received an honorary doctorate from a university in Pakistan.

Youssef had worn the hat on his show a week earlier.

The public prosecutor on Saturday issued an arrest warrant for Youssef, who has more than 1.2 million Twitter followers, following several legal complaints against him relating to the material used on the show.

He is accused of offending Islam through "making fun of the prayer ritual" and of insulting Morsi by "making fun of his international standing".

Dubbed the Egyptian answer to American television's Jon Stewart, star of The Daily Show, Youssef has repeatedly poked fun at those in power and became a household name in the Arab world's most populous country.

He now joins the ranks of several colleagues in the media who face charges of insulting the president.

Rights lawyers say there have been four times as many lawsuits for insulting the president under Morsi than during the entire 30 years that Mubarak ruled.

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Five children under 10 die in France fire

FIVE children between the ages of two and 10 died when a fire ravaged their home in northern France while staying with their divorced father, who was seriously burned trying to save them.

In Saint-Quentin, a town about 130km northeast of Paris, a father who had his children for the weekend jumped out of a first-floor window to get help as flames engulfed his house.

The father, in his 40s, attempted to go back into the house with a neighbour, but the two were helpless in the face of the massive flames.

"He never thought of himself. He tried to go get help. He burned himself trying to save his son," said the neighbour, Olivier Hubeaux.

Masses of smoke "seriously complicated the work of the firefighters", who found the five bodies of the children, "dead from asphyxiation", said town official Jean-Jacques Boyer.

Autopsies will be carried out on the children on Monday.

Investigators are following the assumption the fire was accidental, but its exact origin has not been confirmed.

The father was in hospital with serious burns and was told only on Sunday morning by a psychologist that his children had died.

The children's mother arrived on Sunday and was in the care of doctors after receiving the news.

Another deadly fire that killed three people broke out on Saturday evening in a rundown seven-storey building housing squatters in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers.

One person died after jumping out the window, another burnt to death on the third floor and a third died in hospital, while at least 13 people were injured.

A resident told journalists the blaze erupted when someone threw a petrol bomb during a brawl between occupants, but investigators could not immediately confirm that.

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US prosecutor murdered with wife

A TEXAS district attorney and his wife have been found dead in their home - the second murder of a US prosecutor in the same office in less than two months, sparking fears of a larger plot.

In January, Kaufman County assistant district attorney Mark Hasse, 57, reportedly investigating the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood, was gunned down just outside a courthouse in a small Texan town.

On Saturday, the county's district attorney, Mike McLelland, and his wife, Cynthia Woodward McLelland, were found shot dead at their home.

"It is a shock," Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh told the Dallas Morning News.

"It was a shock with Mark Hasse, and now you can just imagine the double shock," he said.

"Until we know what happened, I really can't confirm that it's related, but you always have to assume until it's proven otherwise."

The newspaper reported that authorities were providing security at the homes of others who feared they could also be targeted.

A statewide bulletin in December said the Aryan Brotherhood - an organised crime syndicate - was "actively planning retaliation against law enforcement officials", the paper said.

Authorities are also probing whether Hasse's shooting was linked to the killing of a Colorado prison chief on March 19.

The suspect in that shooting is Evan Spencer Ebel, 28, a white supremacist with a criminal history spanning a decade, who was shot and killed after a standoff with sheriff's deputies.

However, authorities have not found evidence tying Ebel to Hasse's murder, the Dallas paper said.

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Anglican leader warns on 'hero leaders'

THE new Archbishop of Canterbury has warned against "pinning hopes on individuals" to solve all of society's problems in his first Easter Sunday sermon.

Justin Welby said a "hero leader culture" in which all trust was placed in one person only led to false hope.

Failing to recognise human failure in any organisation was "naive", he told worshippers at Canterbury Cathedral.

"Put not your trust in new leaders, better systems, new organisations or regulatory reorganisation," Welby said. "They may well be good and necessary, but will to some degree fail.

"Human sin means pinning hopes on individuals is always a mistake, and assuming that any organisation is able to have such good systems that human failure will be eliminated is naive."

The leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans pointed to newspaper reports on Friday that only 40 per cent of churchgoers are convinced that he can resolve the problems of the Church of England.

"I do hope that means the other 60 per cent thought the idea was so barking mad that they did not answer the question," Welby said.

In a radio interview before the sermon, the archbishop said the Church of England must show it can manage disagreement "gracefully" over issues such as women bishops and gay marriage.

Welby, a 57-year-old former oil executive who was ordained only in 1989, was enthroned on March 21.

One of his predecessors as Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, on Saturday accused Prime Minister David Cameron of making Christians feel marginalised because he had backed the legalisation of gay marriage and other policies.

Carey spoke out following comments Cameron made at a pre-Easter reception for faith leaders at which he urged them to oppose "aggressive secularisation".

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Zygier gave up names of informants: report

THE man known as Prisoner X - Melbourne-born former Mossad agent Ben Zygier - was outfoxed trying to turn a Hezbollah representative into a double agent and unwittingly became one himself, handing over the names of two valuable informants in Lebanon, Fairfax Media says.

That is the reason why he became a top-secret inmate in an Israeli jail where he took his own life.

Fairfax says Mr Zygier, recruited in 2004, was disconsolate that his career as a Mossad agent had become bogged down at a desk job and he took it upon himself to turn the Hezbollah link into a double agent.

But in an effort to prove he was a Mossad agent, he handed over the names of two informants in Lebanon who were subsequently arrested and given hefty jail sentences.

Fairfax says that unable to bear the shame of his downfall, and facing a minimum 10-year jail sentence with no prospect of a return to the Mossad, Mr Zygier apparently took his own life on December 15, 2010.

Fairfax said that he learned that east European man was known to be close to the militant Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, and set up a meeting towards the end of 2008 with the intention of turning him into a double agent.

But the reverse happened, and Mr Zygier became the conduit for information flowing from Tel Aviv to Hezbollah.

In an effort to prove his Mossad bona fides he gave up the names of Israel's two top Lebanese informants, Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh.

Both men were subsequently arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years jail with hard labour.

* Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

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Cyprus in last-ditch bailout talks

CYPRUS President Nicos Anastasiades has entered emergency talks with the island's international creditors seeking to avert bankruptcy in a crisis that is again threatening the stability of the wider eurozone.

The clock is ticking for the tiny country after the European Central Bank threatened to halt life-support funding if there is no deal by Monday, a day before Cyprus's banks are due to reopen after a 10-day shutdown.

Cyprus and its creditors are trying to nail a deal that will restructure the island's banks and deliver up to six billion euros ($A7.5 billion) from large bank deposits in order to resurrect an agreement for a bailout worth up to 10 billion euros.

European Union economics head Olli Rehn acknowledged Cypriot leaders faced hard choices to try to limit the damage from the blow to its bloated banking sector, after a firestorm of protest over the EU plans to impose a special levy on bank customer deposits.

Anastasiades's cortege entered EU headquarters in Brussels shortly after 2pm on Sunday (0001 AEDT Monday), an AFP correspondent said.

Anastasiades was to meet with ECB head Mario Draghi, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, EU president Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem and Rehn, sources told AFP.

Dijsselbloem will also bring in the finance ministers from all 17 currency partners from 1700 GMT (0400 AEDT) for what is likely to prove yet another sleepless night in snow-covered Brussels.

Cypriot reports suggested officials had made progress with EU and IMF representatives, having agreed a 20 per cent haircut on Bank of Cyprus and a 4.0 per cent levy on other banks.

A radical restructuring of the island's second largest lender Laiki (Popular Bank) will see all deposits over 100,000 euros put into a "bad bank" where they will be tied up for years and may never be fully recovered.

But negotiations stumbled on EU-IMF demands for a substantial levy on deposits above the same threshold in the Bank of Cyprus to avoid it facing similar restructuring. It holds more than a third of all deposits.

The haircut would take the form of a bond or share swap in a bid to get the measure through parliament.

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Brit in India 'shouted for help for hour'

A BRITISH woman who jumped from a hotel balcony in India fearing a sexual assault says she shouted for help for more than an hour before she fled.

Jessica Davies, 31, from London, says she barricaded the door of her hotel room in Agra with furniture to stop two men from entering.

"I held my key in the lock and I could feel them turning it from the other side," she told the BBC.

Davies, a dental hygienist, injured both legs in the jump but said her ordeal could have been a lot worse.

The manager of the hotel and another member of staff appeared in court on Wednesday accused of harassing Davies, with their lawyer saying they denied the charges.

Davies said she wanted to talk about her experience "because the shame of sexual assault makes many people too scared to speak out".

She also said it was "disgusting" that her fellow hotel residents had failed to help.

The incident came just days after a Swiss cyclist was allegedly gang-raped in the central state of Madhya Pradesh by a group of villagers, while on a cycling trip with her husband that was meant to include a stopover in Agra.

Davies, who is now back in Britain, told the BBC her ordeal began when she was "surprised" by a knock at her door at 3.45am.

She denied claims by the hotel manager's lawyer that she had asked for a wake-up call, saying she had set her phone alarm for 4.30am to catch a taxi for a train to Jaipur.

"By hook or by crook this person - or persons - were going to get into my room. I'm 100 per cent certain. And there was only one way out, to jump two floors."

She said a passing rickshaw driver took her to a police station where he stayed with her for hours and acted as translator.

"He was amazing," she said, but added: "I don't know his name and I don't know how to thank him."

She said she had not been put off from returning to India, but was "never going to travel alone again".

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