New Syrian envoy to France named

FRENCH President Francois Hollande and the new Syrian opposition leader have announced plans to install an ambassador to represent Syria in France.

The surprise move came after talks at France's presidential palace between Hollande and Moaz al-Khatib, head of the newly formed Syrian opposition coalition. France recognised the coalition days after it was formed on Sunday - and is so far the only Western country to do so.

Hollande also confirmed that French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who was at Saturday's talk, will raise the issue of lifting the EU arms embargo against Syria at a meeting on Monday in Brussels among European Union foreign ministers.

Fabius has suggested supplying defensive weapons so Syrian rebels can protect themselves from attacks by the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

More than 36,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising against Assad began in March 2011 and the new coalition is pressing for the means to defend Syrian civilians.

Since May 2011, the EU has imposed a ban on the export of weapons and equipment to Syria that could be used for "internal repression".

France has taken the lead in efforts to oust Assad's regime, and Hollande reiterated on Saturday that the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces is for France the sole representative of the Syrian people and a future provisional government.

Fabius will also press EU partners to recognise the coalition, Holllande said.

"We have no hidden agenda," al-Khatib said in a bid to reassure other nations.

Hollande said al-Khatib, a preacher-turned-activist, reassured him that the coalition he leads seeks unity of the Syrian people and France's aim in moving quickly is to "assure its legitimacy and credibility".

The United States and other EU nations have said they prefer to wait and see whether the coalition truly represents the variety of people that make up Syria.

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49 children killed in Egypt bus tragedy

AT least 49 nursery school children have been killed when a train smashed into their bus in central Egypt after a railway signal operator fell asleep, officials say, prompting protests and resignations.

Transport Minister Rashad al-Metini stepped down after the tragedy, which also killed the bus driver and his assistant, saying he "accepts responsibility".

President Mohamed Morsi accepted the Egyptian Railway Authority head's resignation.

"There are now 49 deaths and 18 injuries," with almost all of the casualties children, Assiut provincial governor Yehya Keshk told state television.

"There is a team of 45 doctors looking after the injured children."

The bus taking about 60 children aged between four and six on a school trip organised by their nursery was struck on a railway crossing in Manfalut, 356 kilometres south of Cairo, police said.

The worker manning the level crossing - which had been left open - was asleep when the bus tried to cross the tracks, Keshk said. "He has been arrested, of course."

Parents of the children were staging angry demonstrations near the scene of the horrific accident, demanding the death penalty for those responsible, police said.

A state television correspondent described the scene as "terrifying" with the blood-splattered bodies of children on the ground, before they were taken to nearby Manfalut hospital.

In a brief television address, Morsi offered his condolences to the families and said those responsible would be referred to the public prosecutor.

"On my and the Egyptian people's behalf, I offer my sincerest condolences to the families," the president said. "I am referring all those responsible to the public prosecution."

Earlier, Morsi ordered the prime minister, the defence and health ministers, and the Assiut governor "to offer all assistance to the families of the victims", the official news agency MENA said.

Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and his interior minister headed to Assiut, MENA said.

Activist groups have called for the resignation of Qandil's cabinet.

"This accident proves the failure of Qandil's government and strengthens the demands for the resignation of a government that has failed, over several months, to produce anything to improve the suffering of Egyptians," the April 6 movement said.

Keshk has ordered the "formation of a fact-finding committee" to probe Saturday's accident, but in similar tragedies in the past, such panels have done little to shed light on the details and less still to bring about accountability.

In a separate road accident, 12 people were killed and three injured when a truck smashed into a minibus near the Egyptian capital on Saturday.

Officials said a speeding truck driving on the wrong side of the road crashed into a minibus carrying 15 passengers. The truck driver was arrested at the scene in the 6th October area, as rescue services worked to extract the bodies, police said.

Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with the country's chronic transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as train lines.

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Mali's north tense after Tuareg offensive

AL-QAEDA-LINKED fighters have gathered reinforcements in the tense Gao region of northeastern Mali and are waiting to see if the Tuareg rebels that launched a failed offensive a day earlier would regroup for a fresh assault.

The desert area of Gao has been a focus of Islamist and Tuareg activity since the once-allied fighters seized the region, along with much of Mali's arid north, following a coup and military collapse in Bamako March.

Though the dusty town of Gao and its surroundings were initially under the control of Tuaregs, who are fighting to establish an independent state, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) ousted them at the end of June.

On Friday, Tuaregs with the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) attacked the Islamist fighters but suffered a heavy defeat that saw about a dozen of their men killed, regional security sources said.

To prepare for a possible new offensive, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which is linked to MUJAO, sent about 300 reinforcements from Timbuktu, about 300 kilometres west of Gao, witnesses told AFP.

By Saturday morning an uneasy calm had settled over the region as locals waited to see if the MNLA would again try their luck, witnesses said.

According to Moussa Salem, an MNLA fighter, "our goal remains to retake Azawad from the hands of AQIM and its allies. We can fall back, but it's only to be able to better push forwards after."

Azawad is the Tuareg name for all of northern Mali.

MUJAO spokesman Walid Abu Sahraoui said his group would continue to pursue the MNLA across the entire region.

"We are in control of the situation," he said.

Since their defeat at the hands of the radical Islamists on June 27, the more secular Tuaregs have no longer controlled any town in this massive desert region that spans two-thirds of Mali's territory.

In the regions under their control, Islamist groups have implemented sharia law and carried out brutal punishments of transgressors, including the stoning to death of an unmarried couple and the amputations of hands and feet of accused thieves.

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ASEAN urges China 'hotline' over sea row

SOUTHEAST Asian nations will propose opening a "hotline" with China aimed at defusing tensions over the South China Sea, ASEAN's chief says.

Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said after a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers on Saturday that they had agreed to back the plan first mooted by Indonesia.

"This of course will be brought up to our Chinese friends," Surin told reporters ahead of a gathering of leaders from the region that begins in Cambodia on Sunday.

"We can call it a red line, we can give it a sense of urgency that if there is anything developing that we all will be phoned ... trying to consult, trying to coordinate, trying to contain any possible spillover of any ... incident, accident, miscalculation, misunderstanding," he added.

ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, have claims to parts of the sea, home of some of the world's most important shipping lanes and believed to be rich in fossil fuels.

China insists it has sovereign rights to virtually all of the sea, and the Philippines and Vietnam have expressed concerns that their giant Asian neighbour has become increasingly aggressive this year in staking its claim.

Philippine and Chinese vessels engaged in a standoff at a remote shoal in the sea in April, escalating the dispute between their countries dramatically.

The proposal comes as ASEAN and China struggle to make progress on a code of conduct (COC) to ease tensions in the sea that was first envisaged a decade ago.

"What Indonesia is now looking for while we are working on the COC is a commitment on the part of ASEAN and China to open a hotline of communication," Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters in Phnom Penh.

"So that if there were to be an incident in the future ... we can commit to have communication and have dialogue if there were to be disputes."

ASEAN leaders will hold their annual summit in Phnom Penh on Sunday. This will be followed by a two-day East Asia Summit involving Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, US President Barack Obama, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the leaders of five other countries.

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Taxpayers funding Vic soccer club: report

TAXPAYERS will pay $4.5 million to a Victorian Premier League club over the next 15 years as part of a relocation deal to benefit Collingwood Football Club, according to reports.

The deal costs taxpayers up to $300,000 a year and is paid as compensation to South Melbourne FC for giving up its exclusive lease at the Bob Jane Stadium in South Melbourne, the Herald Sun reports.

Former sports minister James Merlino signed off on the deal in 2009 when the then Brumby government wanted Athletics Victoria to shift to the stadium, according to the newspaper.

Collingwood then moved into Athletics Victoria's old base, Olympic Park.

The Herald Sun uncovered details of the payments during a Victorian County Court case which will determine whether South Melbourne FC must repay a group of supporters who loaned the club money in 2004.

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Aussie scientists cure inherited disease

SCIENTISTS say they are closer to helping people with hereditary diseases after restoring almost normal heart function to members of a family who suffer from a dangerous cardiac disease.

Medical researchers cured the family of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a disease that causes heart rhythm disorders, using technology to identify mutated genes which they targeted with drugs.

The research, led by a team from Sydney's Victor Chang Cardiac Institute and St Vincent's Hospital, has been published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The researchers began by screening the 42 members of the family who had a history of DCM.

They were then given drugs which genetic sequencing led researchers to believe would target and "specifically reverse the consequences of the gene defect", Victor Chang Cardiac Institute Professor Jamie Vandenberg said.

Drugs can slow the progress of DCM, but when it inevitably reaches what researchers call "end stage" the only option for sufferers is a heart transplant, Prof Vandenberg said.

Thanks to new research and the decreasing costs and difficulties of gene sequencing, it is now possible to identify mutated genes and prescribe medication that targets the cause of hereditary diseases.

In the case of inherited DCM, it's as close to a cure as is yet available, Prof Vandenberg says.

"Some of these patients went from having a life expectancy of six to 12 months to now having almost normal heart function again," he told AAP.

"If you do understand what the underlying gene defect is, there's a possibility that you can identify a specific drug that will work and will work very effectively.

About 1 in 2000 Australians are affected by DCM, which accounts for about 10 per cent of heart failures.

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iPhone 5, Galaxy S3 added to patent battle

A CALIFORNIA judge has granted motions to add Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S3 with the Jelly Bean operating system to a patent infringement suit between the mobile giants.

San Jose judge Paul Grewal granted the motions filed by the two companies, which are embroiled in patent lawsuits in 10 nations and have accused each other of stealing design and technology.

Samsung - the world's top mobile and smartphone maker - was ordered by a US jury in August to pay Apple $US1.05 billion ($A1.02 billion) in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad features for its flagship Galaxy S smartphones.

It has appealed the ruling.

Since then, two separate rulings by courts in Japan and the Netherlands have dismissed Apple's claims of patent infringement.

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Girl missing, feared taken by croc in NT

IT is feared that a young girl has been taken by a crocodile, after she went missing while swimming in a waterhole in the Northern Territory.

The girl, believed to be aged between seven and 11, was swimming with a group of people in a local waterhole on Friday afternoon about 95km west of the remote community of Maningrida when an adult of the group spotted a crocodile.

"Everyone made their way out of the billabong, but the girl went missing," Senior Sergeant Geoff Bahnert told AAP.

The community quickly launched a search for the girl, but when they were unable to find her, called police around 6.30pm (CST).

Sergeant Bahnert said neither the child nor the crocodile had been seen since.

"It is probable that the child has been taken by a crocodile," he said.

According to Sergeant Bahnert, the community has never seen crocodiles in the area before, which is why they had thought it was safe to go swimming.

Police and fisheries staff were searching with a spotlight overnight in the hopes of spotting either the girl or the crocodile, while wildlife rangers were expected to be on the site at first light to help with the search.

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Israel cannot vanquish Gaza: Hamas chief

ISRAEL will never defeat Gaza, says the exiled chief of the Hamas movement which rules the Palestinian territory.

"This enemy is weak and cannot vanquish Gaza," Khaled Meshaal told a major conference of Sudanese Islamists in a defiant speech on Thursday.

His visit to Sudan came as warplanes from the Jewish state pounded Gaza for a second day in Israel's toughest assault on the Palestinian territory in four years.

Fighting began with Israel's targeted killing of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jaabari on Wednesday. Since then, militants have fired around 250 rockets over the border, an Israeli official said.

"The Palestinian men and women will continue their resistance," Meshaal vowed, describing Israel as "not a legitimate entity."

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Christchurch's Victoria Square to reopen

A WALK through Christchurch's Victoria Square will be possible for the first time since the February 2011 earthquake when the red zone is reduced on Friday.

The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority says pedestrians will be able to access the restored area, which was extensively damaged in the quake, between 7am and 9pm daily, although access by vehicles is restricted.

Two pathways will be opened and it's likely more will be opened this month.

Construction work will continue, but areas will be cordoned off for public safety.

"While returning to Victoria Square may be tempered by a sense of loss we can all take heart at the collective determination to reopen and revive the central city," Christchurch City Council city environment group general manager Jane Parfitt said.

Work has not started near the amphitheatre as decisions are pending on the Town Hall and other projects.

The Floral Clock and Cook and Queen Victoria statues are being assessed as part of a Statues and Memorial project.

The 6.3-magnitude quake struck west of Lyttelton on February 22, 2011 killing 185 people and causing widespread destruction and extensively damaging Christchurch's central city infrastructure.

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US jobless claims soar after Superstorm

US weekly jobless claims jumped by 78,000 in one week in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which both interrupted reporting and forced people out of work in the northeast, Labor Department data shows.

New claims for unemployment insurance, a signal of the pace of layoffs, rose to 439,000 in the week to November 10 from the previous week's figure of 361,000.

"Several states have experienced large increases of initial claims as a result of Hurricane Sandy," a Labor Department official said on Thursday of the sharp rise.

Sandy blasted the northeastern coast of the US at the end of October and beginning of November, shutting down major cities, leaving millions without power for days, and wrecking homes and businesses in many communities.

The weekly figure was far above the 360,000-380,000 range for claims of the past year and pulled the four-week moving average higher, to 383,850.

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Only nine nations own Twitter handles

ONLY nine out of 193 UN member states own Twitter accounts bearing their country name, and only three of those accounts have been officially verified by the micro-blogging site, according to a new report.

In "Twiplomacy", a study looking at country branding on Twitter, communications firm Burson-Marsteller said it had found that most country name accounts were held by private individuals and that three out of five were either dormant, inactive, suspended or protected, meaning they can only be seen by accepted viewers.

"Few governments and tourism organisations have understood the power of country branding and marketing on Twitter," Matthias Luefkens, who heads Burson-Marsteller's digital practice unit, said in a statement.

Only the @GreatBritain, @Israel and @SouthAfrica handles were verified by Twitter as official accounts run by the countries' governments or tourism boards, Luefkens told AFP.

Britain's account was a successful part of the "Britain is Great" campaign launched in March this year, while Israel's account, run by the foreign ministry, was the country's official Twitter channel and counted more than 66,000 followers, according to the study.

Sweden's Twitter account @Sweden, with 65,000 followers, is meanwhile run jointly by the government-linked Swedish Institute and the country's official tourism board, but has, according to Luefkens, likely not been verified by Twitter due to its "democratic" format, allowing a new citizen to host the feed each week and tweet about anything that comes to mind.

The Twitter accounts of Antigua Barbuda, Barbados, Lithuania, the Maldives and Spain are also run by their respective tourism organisations to promote tourism in the countries, the study showed.

It is meanwhile not possible to tell who runs the world's most followed country handle, @Indonesia, which is basically a feed for news about the country and counts 193,349 followers, Luefkens said.

Many country-name accounts were held by private individuals, with the protected @Egypt account profile for instance stating it was run out of the California Bay area and that "I am not Egypt the country. Okay? I am. not. Egypt. the. country."

The person who owns @Canada has meanwhile repeatedly offered to give the handle to the Canadian government, if it gets in touch, Luefkens said, pointing out that it is against Twitter rules to sell a handle.

He said he was not surprised that more governments did not have control of their country handles, pointing out that "it is only just dawning on them that this is a powerful vehicle for communication."

"I think it will change quickly and governments will become more active" in trying to gain control of Twitter accounts bearing their countries' name, he said.

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Israel ministry proposes 'toppling' Abbas

ISRAEL'S foreign ministry has proposed in a policy paper "toppling" Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas if a Palestinian bid for state observer status at the United Nations is approved later this month.

"Toppling Abu Mazen's (Abbas's) regime would be the only option in this case," the position paper obtained by AFP says.

"Any other option ... would mean waving a white flag and admitting the failure of the Israeli leadership to deal with the challenge."

The position paper is a draft document that is expected to be endorsed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who would then present it to the Israeli officials charged with formulating Israel's response to the Palestinian bid.

Lieberman has already reportedly expressed his view that Abbas's Palestinian Authority should be dismantled if the UN bid succeeds.

The Palestinians are scheduled to present their bid for state observer status at the general assembly on November 29, where they are expected to easily win approval, despite opposition from the United States and Israel.

The bid comes slightly more than a year after the Palestinians sought full UN membership at the security council, a request that stalled there because of opposition from the United States, a permanent member and veto-holder.

The ministry paper warns that Israel "must extract a high price from Abu Mazen," and that receiving state status at the UN "would be considered a crossing of a red line."

Israel's Channel 10 reported on November 5 that Lieberman had backed the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, in comments to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

"If the Palestinians pursue their project at the UN, they are definitively destroying the chances of peace talks," the station quoted Lieberman as saying on October 24.

"If they persist with this project, I will ensure that the Palestinian Authority collapses."

A senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that Israel is also considering annulling part or all of the 1993 Oslo Accords in response to the UN bid.

The 1993 Oslo accords were intended to pave the way for a full resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority, which was to govern parts of the occupied West Bank and Gaza until a final agreement.

Israel and Washington fiercely oppose any Palestinian action at the United Nations, and US President Barack Obama called Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas earlier this week to reiterate his opposition.

But the Palestinians have confirmed they will push ahead with the plan, saying that enhanced UN status does not contradict peace efforts, and pointing out that direct talks have been on hold since late September 2010.

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Disability insurance scheme 'to blow out'

THE National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will become a monster program that will probably blow out by more than $7 billion annually when fully operational, a think tank says.

A Centre for Independent Studies report says the scheme will become "the new leviathan of the Australian welfare state".

It cites a secret review by the Australian Government Actuary (AGA) released under freedom of information that revealed the NDIS will provide disability care to 441,000 people at a cost of $22 billion a year or $50,000 per person when it is fully operational in 2018-19.

"However, these estimates also likely underestimate the cost of the scheme beyond," says the report, released on Thursday.

"The AGA's estimates do not include potential financial risks to the scheme ... the impact of scheduled increases in the pension age from 2017 to 2023."

The AGA's figures are substantially larger than the Productivity Commission's estimate that the scheme would cost about $15 billion a year and cover 411,000 people in 2019-19 when the scheme is fully operational, the report says.

It says the Productivity Commission's figures do not take into account wage increases in the community services sector, price inflation, or population growth from 2009-10 to 2018-19.

The report estimates the scheme is likely to support around 500,000 people at a cost of about $29.5 billion per year in 2023-24, which includes the administration costs of employing more than 8000 bureaucrats to run it.

Report author Andrew Baker said there was pressure to expand eligibility to the 600,000 people aged 65 and older with a severe or profound disability who would be excluded from the scheme.

Despite question marks about how it will be paid for, Mr Baker said it was a worthwhile program that would improve the lives of thousands.

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UK economy set to shrink: Bank of England

BRITAIN'S weak economy may shrink in the last three months of the year and growth will remain sluggish into 2013, its central bank says.

The Bank of England's warning comes after the country's gross domestic product on annual basis unexpectedly grew by 1 per cent in the third quarter, ending a nine-month recession.

"Welcome as that is, it is not a reliable guide to the future," Governor Mervyn King said at a news conference introducing the Bank's quarterly Inflation Report on Wednesday.

"Output growth is likely to fall back sharply in Q4 as the boost from the Olympics in the summer is reversed - indeed output may shrink a little this quarter," King said.

The bank also lowered its GDP growth forecast for 2013 to about 1 per cent.

"We face the rather unappealing combination of a subdued recovery with inflation remaining above target for a while," the governor added.

King said the Bank "has not lost faith" in quantitative easing, the economic stimulus program of asset purchases which has pumped 375 billion pounds ($A574 billion) into the British economy since 2009.

The growth spurt in the third quarter and the persistence of inflation above the official 2 per cent target led the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee to decide against any increase in QE this month.

Despite the recent recession, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday the UK unemployment rate fell to 7.8 per cent in the July-September period, down from 8.0 per cent in the previous three months and from 8.2 per cent in the year-earlier period.

However, there was an increase of 10,000 in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the month of September.

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One dead in SAfrica farmworker unrest

SOUTH African police say one person is dead and five others have been hurt as protests by farm workers demanding higher pay descend into sporadic violence.

"We can confirm the death of a 28-year-old man in Wolseley and five others wounded," Constable Lybey Swartz of local police said on Wednesday.

The circumstances of the death are still being investigated, she said.

The fatality came as violence flared across South Africa's agricultural heartland in the Western Cape, sparking calls for the military to be deployed.

At various locations police used rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse protesters.

Shops were ransacked, fields were burned, vehicles were set alight, rocks were hurled and the main road between Johannesburg and Cape Town was blocked.

Several thousand farm workers have been on strike for more than a week, calling for their salary to be doubled to 150 rand ($A10.60) a day.

At Ceres, the main town in the country's picturesque fruit-growing region, police reported events had escalated markedly from previous days.

"There is violence, the people are striking, the riots are becoming bigger and bigger," said officer Nicollene Dyantjie.

Regional premier and opposition leader Helen Zille called for the ANC government to deploy the South African National Defence Force and demanded President Jacob Zuma intervene.

More than fifty people have been killed in labour unrest in South Africa in recent months, with the mining sector particularly affected.

The prospect of those deadly strikes taking hold in the agriculture sector has policymakers and businesses worried.

Chastened by allegations of mismanagement of previous crises, South Africa's government on Wednesday attempted to cool the situation, backing striking farmworkers' pay demands.

Describing current salaries as "not enough" the agriculture ministry gathered a top government official to discuss raising the minimum wage for the sector.

"They don't have decent living conditions, they don't have decent water to drink, it's a very basic problem," said Palesa Mokomela, spokeswoman for the ministry of agriculture.

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Missing young people baffle COAG council

A GROUP of young Australians who are neither earning nor learning has the COAG Reform Council baffled.

The council's latest reports into skills and education found the proportion of 18 to 24 year-olds fully engaged in employment, education or training has dropped to 72.5 per cent in 2011.

Most of this was down to a fall in full-time employment.

But the council also found that nationally, there was no significant increase in the rates of young people who finished Year 12 or equivalent between 2008 and 2011.

The results were surprising given the genuine focus by all governments on education and training, council deputy chairman Greg Craven told reporters in Canberra.

"If young Australians are not earning or learning, that begs the question - what are they doing?" Professor Craven said.

"We need to focus very, very carefully on making sure that all Australians are equipped to participate and benefit from both the society and the economy."

It was not a disaster that the council was unable to track this group, but they did want to find out what the young people were doing and whether their needs were being met, Prof Craven said.

The reports also showed disadvantaged groups were still fighting disproportionately to overcome barriers to further education.

People from the most disadvantaged areas were the least likely to be studying for further qualifications, with only 55.1 per cent seeking higher skills compared to 76.5 per cent of those in the least disadvantaged regions.

Almost two in five indigenous people held post-school qualifications, compared with almost three in five non-indigenous people.

"That progress that we are making among disadvantaged groups is not fast and it is a worry that there are particular groups that are not benefiting in the same level as other Australians," Prof Craven said.

The report on skills also found the reduction in the number of people without any kind of higher-level qualification was happening too slowly to meet COAG's 2020 target.

The proportion of working Australians without at least a Certificate III dropped between 2008 and 2011, but the trend rate indicated there would still be one-third of Australians without such a qualification in 2020 - 10 points higher than the target level.

Prof Craven said the council was "very, very hopeful" a new national agreement signed in April would improve this result.

He said it was especially important people got more skills with the economy in transition and employers needing a pool of skilled workers to be able to take advantage of new opportunities.

"Against the background of the Asian century white paper that demand is only going to continue to grow so that it's absolutely imperative that we see the rates of skilled Australians rise to meet the challenge."

One highlight in the report was that Australia is well on track to meet COAG's target to double diploma and advanced diploma completions by 2020.

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Obama puts Allen NATO nomination on hold

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has delayed General John Allen's nomination as NATO's supreme commander pending a probe into his email correspondence with a woman at the centre of a sex scandal.

"At the request of the secretary of defense, the president has put on hold his nomination of Gen Allen as SACEUR pending the investigation of Gen Allen's conduct by the Department of Defense IG (inspector general)," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said on Tuesday.

A US defense official said FBI investigators had uncovered a trove of 20,000 to 30,000 pages of correspondence - mostly emails - between Allen and Jill Kelley, a key figure in the scandal that brought down CIA chief David Petraeus.

"The allegations involve inappropriate communications" between Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, and Kelley, the official told reporters travelling with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Panetta said in a statement his department was informed by the FBI on Sunday about the case and that he had referred it to the Pentagon's inspector general for investigation.

Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, had been tapped to take over as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe before the latest cascade of revelations.

"The President remains focused on fully supporting our extraordinary troops and coalition partners in Afghanistan, who Gen Allen continues to lead as he has so ably done for over a year," Vietor said.

Meanwhile, Obama called on the Senate to act quickly to confirm Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford as the next commander of the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, Vietor said.

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Xmas shopping by smart phones set to boom

ABOUT 40 per cent of Australians are expected to use their smart phones and tablets to shop over Christmas - more than double last year's figure.

Google Australia research has found that there is a 20 per cent increase in shopping related searches year on year and that 40 per cent of all shopping searches now come from smart phones or tablets.

"What we see is we're getting a growth of 20 per cent, year on year, for shopping related searches and mobile devices searches have more than doubled in the last 12 months," Google Australia leader for local and retail Ross McDonald said.

Mr McDonald said with the recent release of the iPhone5 and an increasing number of Australians buying iPads he expected the number of mobile searches to increase more rapidly this Christmas.

"We reckon there will be close to a million new devices turned on between now and Christmas when you think about the iPad launch and the new iPhone launch," he said.

"That means there will be more and more Australians using them to make decisions on what they're going to buy for Christmas.

"The last three years the highest number of searches we've had on mobiles have been in the week before Christmas and we estimate that in the week before Christmas this year we will get 50 per cent of our queries through mobile devices."

Mr McDonald said even people who were buying in store still did their research online and used their smart phones and devices to find relevant stores.

"On a big screen people do their product research, then they use a mobile to work out where they're going to go, when the store is open and what offers they have," he said.

He said while some retailers, especially smaller ones, may not be interested in selling online they should still have a mobile friendly website to advertise because that was where most shoppers looked for information about stores and products.

"What we measure is bounce rate and what we see is bounce rates are very, very high if the website is not optimised for a mobile screen," he said.

"If it's not accessible for a mobile, people will very quickly bounce off it and go and look up something else."

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Up to three feared missing in western NSW

A SEARCH for up to three people feared missing in a national park in western NSW is set to resume at first light, with police warning they may be very difficult to find.

Police said a woman called Triple Zero about 12pm (AEDT) on Tuesday, saying she was lost around one hour's drive from Broken Hill.

But the call dropped out before full details could be provided.

Using GPS co-ordinates traced from the call, emergency crews began searching for her throughout Tuesday afternoon inside the Mutawintja National Park - about 150km northeast of Broken Hill.

Rescue crews discovered a car after flying over the region around 8pm. However, the missing people could not be located.

The search was suspended a short time later due to poor light.

Broken Hill's acting police sergeant, Russell Smith, said they have spoken with the family of the female caller and understand one or two people were travelling with her.

"We believe that they are essentially tourists to the region," he told AAP.

He said police would meet early on Wednesday morning before both a ground and air search resumes at first light.

"We don't know what condition they are in, we don't know what provisions they have.

"We need to find them."

Describing the national park as "rugged desert-type terrain" with limited access to water, Sergeant Smith said their exact location could be "very difficult to find".

"It is a very large area to find people in," he said.

"It can be very hot during the daytime and very cold during the night."

But he said additional resources were being sent from Sydney overnight.

"Now that we have an idea of where we are going we will go back there first thing."

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Radical preacher Abu Qatada wins appeal

MUSLIM radical preacher Abu Qatada has won his appeal against deportation from Britain to Jordan to face terrorism charges.

The decision represents a setback to the British government.

Home Office officials say they strongly disagree with the ruling.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission on Monday blocked the deportation of Abu Qatada, saying it was not convinced by the government's assurances that no evidence obtained through torture would be used against Abu Qatada in Jordan.

He has been referred to as a top al-Qaeda operative who had close ties to the late Osama bin Laden.

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Artificial pancreas hope for diabetes

AUSTRALIAN researchers believe they are one step closer to developing an artificial pancreas for people with diabetes.

A Sydney-based diabetes expert and a Queensland artificial intelligence specialist have tested the prototype of a software program that could replicate the role of a human pancreas.

If a clinical trial works as well as the prototype, it could be a breakthrough for the lives of those with type 1 diabetes who have to inject insulin daily, they say.

Jenny Gunton from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Nigel Greenwood of the University of Queensland say the device would work by measuring a patient's blood glucose levels and delivering the dose of insulin required - as a normally-functioning pancreas does.

"The ultimate aim for a 'mechanical cure' for type 1 diabetes would be to have a closed loop system - where you have an insulin pump which knows how much insulin to give at the right time," said Associate Professor Gunton.

"So you have glucose monitoring and insulin administration in the same machine, with very smart pump software keeping people's blood glucose normal."

In the project, funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, two virtual patients had data supplied from real people with diabetes. Their medical data, including blood glucose levels, was then simulated.

The software developed by Dr Greenwood, called Neuromathix, calculated suggested insulin dosages for the patients and their blood glucose was analysed over 55 simulated days.

The researchers found that target blood glucose levels were achieved over 90 per cent of the time - compared to the average person with diabetes who hits the target 60 per cent of the time.

"What we have just done couldn't have been done 10 years ago. We are dealing with a profoundly complex model involving many unknowns," said Dr Greenwood.

He hopes the software will reach the market in 2016 after a clinical study and trial.

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Final IBAC bills in Vic parliament

A GOVERNMENT-APPOINTED Victorian inspector will be able to sit in on witness examinations and be privy to material uncovered in investigations by the ombudsman and the state's new anti-corruption commission.

The final pieces of legislation in the state government's new integrity regime will be introduced into parliament on Tuesday.

The draft laws will replace the Office of Police Integrity with the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).

Although its permanent head is yet to be announced, the IBAC can start investigations as soon as the legislation passes parliament, which is expected to happen before the end of the year - about 18 months late.

Ron Bonighton is acting commissioner until the end of December.

The IBAC will be responsible for investigating serious corrupt conduct across the state's public service, covering some 250,000 workers including MPs, ministerial staffers and local councillors.

It will also investigate alleged misconduct by Victoria Police sworn and unsworn officers.

There will also be major changes relating to the role of Ombudsman George Brouwer, who will be answerable to a parliamentary committee for the first time.

He, along with the IBAC, will also be monitored by the Victorian Inspectorate, to be led by an inspector who is yet to be announced. The inspector's role will be to ensure the use of covert and coercive powers is lawful and fair.

The Victorian Inspectorate will be able to observe any witness questioning by the ombudsman and the IBAC and have access to material seized during investigations.

The ombudsman will lose the power to make decisions about which complaints can receive whistleblower protections. That power will be transferred to the IBAC.

The minister responsible for the establishment of an anti-corruption commission, Andrew McIntosh, said the government had taken the time to get its integrity regime right to fix a "patchwork system" that had failed Victoria.

"These are the most significant integrity reforms in the history of this state," he said.

"The bills introduced today cap off these reforms."

The IBAC will have the power to bug phones and conduct other surveillance once federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon rubber stamps federal telecommunication interception legislation.

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Israel fires another shot into Syria

ISRAELI troops have fired tank shells into Syria in retaliation for a mortar round that struck near an army post in the Golan Heights, scoring "direct hits" on the source of the fire, the army says.

"A short while ago, a mortar shell hit an open area in the vicinity of an IDF (army) post in the central Golan Heights, as part of the internal conflict inside Syria, causing no damage or injuries," it said on Monday.

"In response, IDF soldiers fired tank shells towards the source of the fire, confirming direct hits."

Israeli military sources said: "Syrian mobile artillery was directly hit," without elaborating further.

The army warned that any further fire from Syria towards the Israeli-occupied sector of the strategic plateau would be answered with "severity".

"Fire emanating from Syria into Israel will not be tolerated and shall be responded to with severity," a statement said, indicating that Israel had filed a complaint with UN observers monitoring the ceasefire line.

Israeli troops fired a warning shot across the UN-monitored ceasefire line on Sunday in the first such shooting on the Golan since the 1973 Middle East war.

Sunday's mortar round, which hit an Israeli position, drew a warning from Defence Minister Ehud Barak that Israel would take "tougher" action in response to any new fire from Syria.

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky said after Sunday's fire the UN chief was "deeply concerned by the potential for escalation".

"He calls for the utmost restraint" and urges both sides to uphold the 1974 accord that set up the ceasefire line and surrounding demilitarised zone.

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Syria opposition inks hard-won unity deal

SYRIAN opposition groups meeting in Qatar have inked a hard-won unity deal and agreed to form a national coalition to fight against President Bashar al-Assad, delegates say.

"We signed a 12-point agreement to establish a coalition," said leading dissident Riad Seif, who drew up the US-backed reform proposals on which Sunday's agreement was based.

Another prominent opposition figure, Haitham al-Maleh, said a formal signing ceremony would held at 1700 GMT (0400 AEDT on Monday).

The deal came after the Syrian National Council, which had formerly been seen as the main representative of the opposition, heeded Arab and Western pressure to agree to a new structure embracing groups that had been unwilling to join its ranks.

Former prime minister Riad Hijab, who fled to neighbouring Jordan in August in the highest-ranking defection from Assad's government, hailed the agreement as "an advanced step towards toppling the regime".

Another delegate, Ziyad Abu Hamdan, said agreement had also been reached on unifying the multiple military councils in command of rebel fighters inside Syria.

He said the talks were now focused on the makeup of a planned government in waiting.

Details of the deal have yet to be released but Maleh said it was "no different" to the original proposals put forward by Seif, one of the leaders of the so-called Damascus Spring protest movement of a decade ago and now touted in Washington as a potential new opposition chief.

Seif's proposals envisaged the formation of a transitional government, a military council to oversee rebel groups on the ground and a judiciary to operate in rebel-held areas.

The 10-member transitional government would be elected by a new 60-member umbrella group to be drawn from civilian activists and rebel fighters inside Syria, as well as by the exiles who have dominated the Syrian National Council.

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Afghan peace council chief visits Pakistan

PAKISTAN says the head of the Afghan council for peace talks with the Taliban will visit Islamabad to discuss reconciliation efforts.

Pakistan's Foreign Office said on Sunday that Salahuddin Rabbani will lead the three days of talks starting on Monday with Pakistani political and military leaders.

Kabul set up the Afghanistan High Peace Council in 2010 to negotiate an end to the decade-long war.

NATO troops plan to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014.

Rabbani was named the council chief after his predecessor, his father Burhanuddin Rabbani, was assassinated in September 2011.

Many of the Taliban's leaders fled to Pakistan after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, and Islamabad is viewed as a key player in any negotiated end to the conflict.

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Boat reported missing off NSW coast

A SEARCH is to resume at first light on Monday for a boat feared to have sunk off Wollongong.

Police were called to Wollongong Harbour at 6pm (AEDT) on Sunday after witnesses reported seeing a small boat that appeared to be sinking and two people in difficulty in the water.

They launched a search, some 500 to 600 metres off the lighthouse.

Despite the best efforts of surf lifesaving club volunteers, marine rescue teams, water police and two helicopters, there has been no sign of the boat or its occupants.

The foreshore has also been searched, with officers checking boat ramps for vehicles and trailers.

The search was postponed at 9.30pm and is to start again on Monday morning following a briefing.

Police would like to hear from witnesses, including the woman who originally saw the boat and told others what she had seen.

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Inquiry to see list of pedophile priests

A VICTIMS group on Monday will present to the Victorian government inquiry into sex abuse by priests a list of 18 convicted pedophile priests who were moved from parish to parish or further away, where they continued offending.

Helen Last of In Good Faith, a consultant for the Melbourne Victims Collective, will present the evidence to the state inquiry into how the churches handled sex abuse by priests, Fairfax says.

It comprises men who have been convicted in criminal courts or found by the Catholic Church's own investigation to have had credible complaints made against them.

Ms Last said the church has known through its Pastoral Appointments Board and its bishops that there have been problems with the conduct of all these priests previously reported to them.

She said the placements gave these priests access to primary and secondary schools, hospitals, orphanages and other care institutions.

The 18 include some of the most notorious pedophiles, such as Gerald Ridsdale, Edward Dowlan, Michael Glennon and the socialite priest Vincent Kiss, as well as many who barely caught public attention.

Ms last said the 18 priests were selected to see how many times they were moved by the church.

She said the problem of clergy abuse was so prevalent that the collective believed a dedicated police unit should be set up to work with victims of clergy.

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