Behemoth storm dumps snow on US northeast

Airlines are grounding their planes in New York City in response to an intensifying blizzard. Source: AAP

A BEHEMOTH storm packing hurricane-force winds and blizzard conditions has swept through the US Northeast, dumping more than half a metre of snow on New England and knocking out power to 650,000 homes and businesses.

More than 70 centimetres of snow had fallen on central Connecticut by early on Saturday, and areas of southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire notched 0.6 metres or more of snow - with more falling. Airlines scratched more than 5,300 flights through Saturday, and New York City's three major airports and Boston's Logan Airport closed.

The wind-whipped snowstorm mercifully arrived at the start of a weekend, which meant fewer cars on the road and extra time for sanitation crews to clear the mess before commuters in the New York-to-Boston region of roughly 25 million people have to go back to work. But it could also mean a weekend cooped up indoors.

For a group of stranded European business travellers, it meant making the best of downtime in a hotel restaurant Friday night in downtown Boston, where snow blew outside and drifted several inches deep on the footpaths.

The six Santander bank employees found their flights back to Spain cancelled, and they gave up on seeing the city or having dinner out.

"We are not believing it," said Tommaso Memeghini, 29, an Italian who lives in Barcelona. "We were told it may be the biggest snowstorm in the last 20 years."

The National Weather Service says up to 3 feet of snow is expected in Boston, threatening the city's 2003 record of 27.6 inches. A wind gust of 76 mph was recorded at Logan Airport.

In heavily Catholic Boston, the archdiocese urged parishioners to be prudent about attending Sunday Mass and reminded them that, under church law, the obligation "does not apply when there is grave difficulty in fulfilling this obligation."

Halfway through what had been a mild winter across the Northeast, blizzard warnings were posted from parts of New Jersey to Maine. The National Weather Service said Boston could get close to 3 feet of snow by Saturday evening, while most of Rhode Island could receive more than 2 feet, most of it falling overnight Friday into Saturday. Connecticut was bracing for 2 feet, and New York City was expecting as much as 14 inches.

Early snowfall was blamed for a 19-car pileup in Cumberland, Maine, that caused minor injuries. In New York, hundreds of cars began getting stuck on the Long Island Expressway on Friday afternoon at the beginning of the snowstorm and dozens of motorists remained disabled early Saturday as police worked to free them.

About 650,000 customers in the Northeast lost power during the height of the snowstorm, most of them in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth, Mass., lost electricity and shut down Friday night during the storm. Authorities say there's no threat to public safety.

At least four deaths were being blamed on the storm, three in Canada and one in New York. In southern Ontario, an 80-year-old woman collapsed while shovelling her driveway and two men were killed in car crashes. In New York, a 74-year-old man died after being struck by a car in Poughkeepsie; the driver said she lost control in the snowy conditions, police said.

Forecasters said wind gusts exceeding 75 mph could cause more widespread power outages and whip the snow into fearsome drifts. Flooding was expected along coastal areas still recovering from Superstorm Sandy, which hit New York and New Jersey the hardest and is considered Jersey's worst natural disaster.

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Khartoum-backed militia 'kill 17 people'

KHARTOUM-BACKED militia in Sudan's South Kordofan state have killed 17 civilians, rebels say.

They accused the group of ethnic South Sudanese of ambushing a civilian lorry on Friday at Abu Nuwara, about 80km from the border with South Sudan's Upper Nile state.

"They clashed with the civilians there and there's a lot of casualties," said Arnu Ngutulu Lodi, spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) which has been fighting government forces in South Kordofan since June 2011.

He said the incident occurred in a government-controlled area and blamed a militia linked to Lam Akol's Sudan People's Liberation Movement-Democratic Change (SPLM-DC).

"This is ridiculous," Akol told AFP from Khartoum. "We don't have a militia."

SPLM-DC is South Sudan's main opposition party, a breakaway group from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement which has ruled the South since independence in 2011 after a 22-year civil war.

He said the rebels in South Kordofan are "just parroting what their masters in Juba are saying."

Khartoum accuses South Sudan of supporting the SPLM-North, and this has been a major obstacle for the failure of Sudan and South Sudan to implement key security and economic agreements signed in September.

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Man gets bail after train station assault

A SYDNEY hotel worker has been charged with the sexual assault of a young male who was passed out drunk at a train station.

The man was granted bail during a brief appearance in Central Local Court on Friday.

Police allege the heavily intoxicated 18-year-old victim had been out with friends before he made his way to Central railway station in the early hours of January 8.

He passed out sometime before 3.30am (AEDT) and awoke to find the man allegedly performing a lewd act on him.

Following inquiries by police, the man was arrested at a hotel in Darling Harbour on Thursday and charged with one count of sexual intercourse.

He was granted conditional bail which included a surety of $10,000.

His wife was among family members who supported him in court.

He will appear before Downing Centre Local Court on April 9.

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Merkel ally resigns in plagiarism scandal

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has suffered a major political blow with the resignation of her education minister over plagiarism allegations.

Merkel said she had accepted the resignation of Annette Schavan "with a heavy heart". Schavan's former university stripped her of her doctorate, saying she had plagiarised parts of her thesis, Person and Conscience, 33 years ago.

Schavan reiterated her vow to fight the allegations but said she did not want the claims to damage the office, the party or the federal government.

"I think today is the right day to leave my ministerial post and to concentrate on my duties as a member of parliament," said a visibly moved Schavan on Saturday.

Schavan, 57, became the second close ally of Merkel to step down over plagiarism after Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a popular defence minister, resigned in 2011.

The extent of Schavan's alleged plagiarism is thought to be less than that of zu Guttenberg's, whose actions earned the aristocrat the nicknames Baron cut-and-paste and zu Googleberg.

Nevertheless, Schavan's mistakes were seen as indefensible given her position as education minister in a country where academic titles are taken extremely seriously.

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Elderly woman dies in scooter accident

AN elderly woman has died after her scooter collided with a car in southwest NSW.

The 81-year-old woman was riding her scooter in Lavington when she collided with a sedan at an intersection and was thrown onto the road about 8.20am (AEDT) on Friday.

She sustained critical injuries and was taken to Albury Base Hospital but later died.

The 49-year-old driver of the car was uninjured.

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Gunmen kill 9 at two Nigeria polio clinics

GUNMEN have attacked two polio clinics in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, killing nine people before fleeing, police and residents say.

"Nine people were killed in two separate attacks by gunmen on (motorised) tricycles when they attacked two dispensaries where polio immunisation workers were preparing to go out for polio campaigns," police spokesman Magaji Majia said.

The attacks come after a local cleric denounced polio vaccination campaigns this week and some local radio programs repeated previous conspiracy theories about such campaigns being a foreign plot to harm Muslims.

Such conspiracy theories have long spread in parts of northern Nigeria, stoked by local politicians.

Nigeria is one of only three countries still considered to have endemic polio, alongside Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Police declined to say who they believed was behind the killings.

Extremist sect Boko Haram has carried out attacks in Kano, although gangs linked to local politics also operate.

"Six people on a tricycle pulled up outside the dispensary at 9.45am while polio immunisation workers were gathering for the day's house-to-house polio campaign," a resident near the second attack said.

"Two of the men were holding guns. They stormed into the dispensary and began shooting."

Last year, two Nigerian police guarding polio vaccination workers were killed by gunmen, though it was unclear if the attack was linked to the campaign.

Islamist extremists have carried out scores of attacks on police.

In 2003, Kano's state government suspended polio immunisations for 13 months, with the then governor saying claims on its harmful effects had to be looked into.

The suspension followed allegations by some Muslim clerics that the vaccine was laced with substances that could render girls infertile as part of US-led plot to depopulate Africa.

Despite the resumption of polio immunisations, Kano has continued to record polio cases as many parents still reject the vaccine.

Deadly attacks linked to polio vaccination campaigns have also occurred in Pakistan.

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Bomb kills 10 people in northwest Pakistan

A BOMB planted near a market in northwestern Pakistan has killed 10 people and wounded 23 others, in the latest in an uptick in attacks in recent months, government officials say.

The blast occurred in Kalaya, the main town in the Orakzai tribal area, said local government administrator Khaistan Akbar.

Orakzai is one of several areas in the semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border where the military has been battling a Pakistani Taliban insurgency.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest bombing, but local militants regularly target security forces and civilians in the area.

The blast occurred near government and security offices, according to another local administrator, Javed Khan.

It damaged one of the shops in the market.

Some of the wounded were in critical condition, he said.

The military has launched multiple operations against the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest since 2009, but the militant have proved resilient and continue to carry out attacks.

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Tunisians mass for slain leader's funeral

TENS of thousands of Tunisians chanting anti-government slogans have attended the funeral of an assassinated opposition politician.

Military helicopters hovered overhead and tensions threatened to boil over as mourners came from all over the country on Friday to mark the assassination of 48-year-old lawyer Chokri Belaid, a harsh critic of the Islamist government.

The country was largely shut down due to a general strike.

Efforts to stem the country's worst crisis since the 2011 revolution deposed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali have so far failed and the funeral has become a platform to mobilise popular anger.

The anti-government sentiment at the cemetery was palpable and there was a brief scuffle when officials identified as being with the governing coalition were stopped by the crowd from entering.

The army, one of the few state institutions people still respect, provided security for the funeral march.

Once the standard bearer in the region for its political consensus, the country's transition to democracy has been shaken by a economic problems and political turmoil.

Belaid had accused the ruling Islamist Ennahda party of resorting to thugs to attack opposition rallies. His family and allies accuse the party of complicity in his killing on Wednesday. Although they have offered no proof, the allegations have fanned popular dissatisfaction with the government.

"We can't accept that they assassinate freedom, that they assassinate democracy - that's what they are doing - we are burying a martyr," said Mohammed Souissi, a 63-year-old veterinarian who showed up at the cemetery, where the crowd seemed unfazed by the intermittent rain and sang the national anthem.

More than a dozen offices of the Ennahda party were attacked overnight in towns around the country, Tunisian media reported. Schools, shops, banks and other institutions were all shuttered following the general strike.

Tunisia's prime minister offered to replace the government after Belaid's killing in response to longstanding opposition demands, but that attempt may have backfired as his ruling Islamist party rejected his decision - exposing internal divisions between moderates and hardliners.

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Govt wants to reveal MRRT data: Swan

THE federal government will make sure people know how much money is really coming from the controversial new mining tax - if the tax commissioner agrees, Treasurer Wayne Swan says.

The Senate ordered the tax commissioner this week to reveal how much money, if any, has flowed from the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT).

Treasury forecast that the tax on the super profits of iron ore and coalminers would raise $2 billion this financial year, but analysts believe that's unlikely.

Despite calls to reveal the amount, the government has been insisting the commissioner can't reveal the tax receipts of mining companies for legal reasons.

Mr Swan said the government believed any MRRT revenue data should be published but says it is up to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to decide.

"If the ATO assesses it can provide information specifically about MRRT revenue from the second quarter to the government, then we will ensure it is made public," he said in a statement on Friday.

Protecting the confidentiality of individual taxpayers was essential, the Treasurer said. "But I believe there is a case to examine whether large and multinational businesses should have the same level of confidentiality about the taxes they have paid."

Mr Swan said revenues from the mining tax had taken a massive hit because of ongoing uncertainty in the global economy, volatile commodity prices and the high Australian dollar.

"MRRT is a profits-based tax that raises more revenue when profits are higher and less when they are lower; that's the whole point of the tax," he said.

Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said earlier this week the government was looking into how corporate tax laws could be made more transparent.

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ECB holds key interest rate at record low

THE European Central Bank has decided to leave its main refinancing rate at a historic low of 0.75 per cent, despite worries about slow growth and the strength of the euro.

ECB watchers had not expected the central bank to ease borrowing costs in the euro area this month, but analysts said they would listen to see what central bank chief Mario Draghi had to say later on Thursday about the recent strong rise of the euro exchange rate.

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Coal train drivers strike over union right

COAL train drivers at the centre of a 48-hour rail stoppage say the dispute is about their right to be represented by a union.

Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) national secretary Bob Nanva says the stoppage is about the right of rail freight workers to collectively bargain through their union.

"Pacific National has tried to frustrate the legitimate right of this workforce to collectively bargain," Mr Nanva said in a statement.

"The company's recent behaviour has now made today's strike as much about our right to stand up for ourselves as it is about this particular EBA (enterprise bargaining agreement).

"Through the course of this dispute Pacific National has offered inducements to employees who don't take part in industrial action and threatened a lower pay offer for those who do," he said.

RTBU members employed by Pacific National Coal, a division of the stock exchange listed company Asciano, began their 48-hour strike at midnight on Thursday.

The RTBU and Pacific National Coal could not agree earlier in the day on a new enterprise agreement for 800 workers, despite the involvement of the Fair Work Commission and discussions with Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten.

The strike threatens the delivery of 600,000 tonnes of coal worth more than $55 million at current prices by Pacific National, while disrupting the 20 to 30 per cent of the state's coal it does not haul because of about 40 idle trains blocking lines.

The RTBU started negotiations last year by asking for pay rises over three years of nine, seven and seven per cent.

Pacific National responded with four per cent a year for three years.

The workers rejected the offer but Pacific National reduced its offer to three per cent from this week, which led to an escalation of the proposed strike action from 24 hours to 48 hours.

AAP understands the union has reduced its claim to seven, five and five per cent.

Most of the workers, who include train drivers, maintainers and terminal operators, are paid a base rate of $63,000 a year, but the company says the average fully trained train driver earns $105,000, including overtime.

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Pilot rescued as Tas fire threat lowered

A PILOT has been rescued after his helicopter crashed while fighting a bushfire in Tasmania, where emergency bushfire warnings have been downgraded.

Strong wind gusts earlier fanned a fire burning at Molesworth in the Derwent Valley, with the Tasmanian Fire Service (TFS) issuing an emergency alert for the area, warning residents it was likely too late to leave and to activate their bushfire survival plan.

The TFS warned the fire danger rating in Molesworth, in the state's south, was still very high but had downgraded the emergency warning to a watch and act alert on Thursday night.

The Molesworth fire terrain has made parts of it inaccessible to the crews working in the area, with four helicopters being used as water-bombers.

One of the firefighting pilots, a 52-year-old Hobart man, crashed into a clearing near the bushfire before being rescued about 5pm (AEDT).

Police said the man was airlifted to the Royal Hobart Hospital for assessment and was shaken by the incident but not seriously hurt.

Two schools in the area, Collinsvale and Molesworth Primary Schools, will remain closed on Friday.

The TFS said the fire had impacted on Suhrs Road, Fehlbergs Road, Valley Road and Collins Cap Road to Springdale Road and may impact on the areas of Myrtle Forest Road and Old Springdale Road within the next six to 12 hours.

The TFS says there may be embers, smoke and ash falling on Molesworth, Glenlusk and Collinsvale.

A watch and act alert is also in place for an out-of-control blaze near Franklin in the Huon Valley, south of Hobart, with the area on a high fire danger rating.

A watch and act alert had also previously been put in place for a fire at Lefroy near George Town, in the state's north, with the area on a low to moderate fire danger rating.

A total fire ban has been declared for the northern and southern regions of Tasmania for Friday.

The fire ban covers Break O'Day, Dorset Flinders, George Town, Launceston, Meander Valley, Northern Midlands, West Tamar, Brighton, Central Highlands, Clarence City, Derwent Valley, Glamorgan, Spring Bay, Glenorchy, Hobart, Huon Valley, Kingborough, Sorell, Southern Midlands and Tasman.

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Merkel ally fights after losing doctorate

GERMANY'S education minister and a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel is fighting for her political life after being stripped of her doctorate for plagiarism seven months ahead of elections.

Annette Schavan vowed to launch a legal battle against Duesseldorf University's ruling on her thesis, Person and Conscience, written 33 years ago, amid opposition calls for her to resign.

"I will not accept the decision by the University of Duesseldorf and will file a lawsuit against it," she said in a brief statement in South Africa where she is on a five-day visit.

She said she planned no further immediate statement as it had now become a legal dispute.

Schavan, a member of Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and a confidante of the chancellor who in September will fight for a third term in office, has received Merkel's backing since the claims emerged.

The chancellor has "good contact" with Schavan, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told a regular government news conference on Wednesday.

"She values her achievement as minister greatly. She has complete confidence in her," he said adding the two would have the opportunity to talk after Schavan returns to Germany.

She is not the first German minister to run up against plagiarism claims.

In 2011 Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, then the most popular figure in Merkel's cabinet, resigned as defence minister after his doctorate was rescinded for plagiarism, earning the aristocrat the nickname Baron Cut-and-Paste.

Later that year, Silvana Koch-Mehrin, a German member of the European parliament, was stripped of her doctorate after an enquiry found that "substantial parts" of her 2000 doctoral thesis were copied from others.

Great store is set by the use of doctorate titles in German society.

Schavan, 57, who is also minister for research, has contested the claims since they were made public around nine months ago and has stressed that when they first emerged, she telephoned the university to ask that they be looked into.

A 15-member body in the philosophy department decided late on Tuesday by 12 votes to two and one abstention to withdraw Schavan's title after study of her thesis revealed "to a significant extent" the inclusion of unidentified verbatim sections of other text.

It found that she had "systematically and deliberately" passed off the work of others as her own without sufficient sourcing.

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Royal Bank of Scotland fined over Libor

US and UK authorities have fined the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) more than $US610 million ($A589 million) for its role in the manipulation of a key global interest rate.

RBS is the third major bank caught up in an international scandal over banks' setting the rate. The London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR, provides the basis for trillions of dollars in contracts around the world, including mortgages, bonds and consumer loans.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission says RBS submitted false data on interest rates to benefit its trading positions.

US and UK regulators fined RBS more than $460 million for rate-rigging. Meanwhile, a unit of RBS agreed to plead guilty in a Department of Justice investigation. It accepted a penalty of $150 million and will cooperate in its probe.

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GlaxoSmithKline full-year profit slides

BRITISH drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced a 13 per cent drop in annual profits and said it would further restructure its European operations to deliver greater savings amid weaker sales across the region.

GSK said profit after tax fell to STG4.565 billion ($A6.92 billion) in 2012 from STG5.261 billion a year earlier.

Group sales dropped 3.5 per cent to 26.431 billion, GSK added in an earnings statement.

Chief executive Andrew Witty said the company was extending its European restructuring program "to deliver annual cost savings of at least one billion by 2016."

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Time Warner earnings up, raises dividend

TIME Warner is reporting a 51 per cent increase in fourth-quarter earnings even as revenue remains largely unchanged. Rising fees from cable and satellite companies and higher ad revenue at the TV networks offset revenue declines at its movie studio and magazine businesses.

Net income was $US1.17 billion ($A1.13 billion), or $1.21 a share, for the final three months of 2012. That's up from $773 million, or 76 cents a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted for one-time items, earnings came to $1.17 per share. That beat the $1.10 per share that analysts expected.

Revenue was almost steady at $8.16 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected revenue of $8.22 billion.

The company expects 2013 adjusted earnings to be up in the low double-digit percentage.

Time Warner Inc is raising its quarterly dividend by 11 per cent to 28.75 cents per share.

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Germany's 'Cookie Monster' returns biscuit

A SELF-STYLED Cookie Monster thief who took a large golden biscuit from outside a renowned German baked good maker to demand goodies for sick children appears to have returned the emblem.

A large golden biscuit wrapped up in a red ribbon mysteriously appeared on a monument in front of Hanover University in northern Germany and police said they were checking if it was indeed the missing company symbol.

The removal last month of the 20-kilo golden biscuit from the front of the Bahlsen firm headquarters, which among other things produces Leibniz butter cookies, has made headlines since a ransom letter emerged.

As well as demanding biscuits for children in a hospital, the letter called for a 1000 euro ($A1305)- reward that Bahlsen had offered for the emblem's return to be donated to an animal shelter.

A photo of an unidentified person in a Cookie Monster costume, a character from the children's television series Sesame Street, was attached. The costumed culprit reappeared again in a second letter sent to the regional Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday.

That letter, made up of newspaper clippings, announced the return of the golden biscuit, stating: "Because Werni, like me, so loves the biscuit, and is now always crying and misses the biscuit so much, I'm giving it back."

The message was apparently referring to Werner Bahlsen, head of the company, which last week called for the golden biscuit's return and said it was ready to give 1000 Leibniz cookies to 52 social institutions.

The golden emblem, which resembles one of the biscuits, had hung outside the company, established in 1889, for around 100 years and reappeared on Tuesday hanging around the neck of a horse monument.

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'Falklands ours in 20 years', Argentina

ARGENTINA expects to have control of the British-held Falkland Islands within 20 years, the country's foreign minister says.

During a visit to London, Hector Timerman said in a joint interview with The Independent and The Guardian newspapers that Argentina would not take military action but that Britain would be forced to compromise soon.

"I don't think it will take another 20 years," he was quoted as saying by the newspapers.

"I think that the world is going through a process of understanding more and more that this is a colonial issue, an issue of colonialism, and that the people living there were transferred to the islands."

He added: "We don't support the occupation of foreign lands, and the Malvinas case is the occupation of a foreign land."

Britain has held the islands in the South Atlantic since 1833, but Argentine forces invaded in 1982, prompting then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher to send a naval task force to reclaim control in a brief but bloody war.

Timerman's comments come amid an escalating war of words some 40 days before Falkland Island residents go to the polls on March 10-11 to say whether they want the archipelago to remain a British overseas territory.

On Thursday, Timerman refused an offer by British Foreign Secretary William Hague to meet with Falkland Islands officials during his visit, a move that Britain described as disappointing.

But Timerman said in the interview published on Tuesday that Britain "has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity to find a solution for the Malvinas".

He said Argentina would "respect the rights" of Falkland Islanders but said there was no obligation on him to discuss the issue with them directly.

"I don't have to persuade them. The United Nations says there is a conflict between the United Kingdom and Argentina," he said.

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British parliament to vote on gay marriage

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron's cabinet allies have launched a last-minute push to persuade their Conservative Party colleagues to back his plans for gay marriage at a vote in parliament on Tuesday.

Cameron has championed the drive to allow same-sex couples to marry but faces the potential embarrassment of seeing half his party's mPs opposing him in the vote.

While the prime minister faces an uncomfortable evening, the outcome of the vote is not in question because the draft legislation has overwhelming support from the opposition Labour Party.

A vote in favour would put Britain well on track to be the 11th country to allow gay couples to marry. Same-sex couples in Britain have had the right to live in civil partnerships since 2005.

The push to win over those Conservatives still bitterly opposed to gay marriage was led by three senior party members - finance minister George Osborne, foreign minister William Hague and interior minister Theresa May.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, they said "attitudes to gay people have changed" and same-sex marriage was "the right thing to do at the right time".

There were signs that some of the Tory waverers were falling into line. Even Chris Grayling, a right-wing MP who once defended the right of a bed and breakfast proprietor to refuse to admit gay couples, said he would back the legislation.

Grayling said in an interview with the gay magazine Attitude that the legislation was "a sensible next step" in the evolution of social attitudes.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller, the minister responsible for the legislation, insisted there was "significant support" for the legislation from Conservative activists.

"I would point out that today not only have we had a letter from the home secretary, the chancellor and the foreign secretary in the papers, but also significant support, again, in the letters of the papers from some of our key activists around the country," she told BBC TV.

"I don't think it is quite as cut and dried as you suggest. Yes, there is a difference of opinion and yes, some people have very principled religious beliefs on this issue, but there is clear support within my party and indeed within the other major parties."

Cameron has promised MPs a free vote on the proposed legislation in the House of Commons on Tuesday, meaning that party managers will not try to influence their choice.

But many backbench Conservative MPs opposed to gay marriage were unmoved by the pleas for them to fall into line.

One, Brian Binley, warned the legislation posed the greatest risk to the stability of society since the "social tsunami of the 1960s".

"This bill risks institutionalising division whilst further undermining marriage in the eyes of many of those of us who see it as something greater than a mere legal device.

"That could cause a most grievous injury to social cohesion, and weaken - rather than strengthen - that institution which has served humanity so well for generations," he wrote on his blog.

The proposals are opposed by the Church of England and its new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, but the legislation bans the "official" churches from offering gay marriage.

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Doctor convicted in German porn star death

A 56-YEAR-OLD anesthesiologist has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a German porn star who had a heart attack during a breast-enlargement operation.

The dpa news agency has reported that the Hamburg hospital doctor, identified only by the initials MF to protect her identity according to German law, was given a 15-month suspended sentence.

The anesthesiologist was found guilty by the Hamburg state court of not ensuring that 23-year-old Carolin Wosnitza, who went by the stage name Sexy Cora had enough oxygen during the 2011 cosmetic surgery. The actress, who also appeared on the Big Brother Germany reality television show, died several days after the botched procedure.

During the trial, the anesthesiologist told the court she took responsibility for Wosnitza's death.

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Lack of trust impedes reconciliation

INDIGENOUS and non-indigenous Australians don't trust each other but almost everyone agrees the relationship is important, Reconciliation Australia says.

The organisation's Barometer 2012 report, which surveys the relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous people, says there has been little significant change in attitudes nationally.

The survey found we don't trust each other and only about half of those surveyed felt proud of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, Reconciliation Australia co-chair Tom Calma says.

"Most people surveyed did not believe the relationship was very good and only half of those believe it was improving," Dr Calma said.

However, it was a different story in a second survey, which found vast improvements in attitudes among indigenous and non-indigenous people working in organisations with a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

Launched in 2006, RAPs are plans organisations make to identify ways to improve the relationship between indigenous people and other Australians both within the organisation and more widely.

In a survey of the more than 350 Australian organisations that now have a RAP it was found 71 per cent of people there trusted each other compared to 13 per cent in the broader community.

RAP organisations employ nearly 19,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, purchase about $58 million of services from certified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses and provide more than $15 million worth of pro-bono support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.

"But RAPs are about more than creating jobs and opportunities," Dr Calma said on Tuesday.

"They are also having an enormous impact on reducing mistrust and ignorance and building real personal relationships between First Peoples and other Australians."

More than three quarters of people (77 per cent) in organisations with a RAP felt pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures compared to 51 per cent in the broader community surveyed by the Barometer report, he said.

Dr Calma said RAPs are changing workplace culture and attitudes and laying the foundation for significant economic and social outcomes.

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Gore says direct action plan won't work

AUSTRALIANS should take a careful look at the progress made to slow climate change here and around the world before the federal election, former US vice-president Al Gore says.

The prominent environmental campaigner believes Prime Minister Julia Gillard's carbon tax shows courage and vision but the coalition's direct action plan to deal with climate change won't work.

Speaking from Tennessee, Mr Gore said he would be watching how the 2013 federal election unfolded and what that meant for action on climate change.

"I'm very impressed with your current prime minister," he told ABC TV on Monday, referring to Labor's carbon tax.

"She's shown a great deal of courage and vision."

Asked what he thought about the coalition's plan to abolish the carbon tax and replace it with direct action programs, Mr Gore said: "It didn't work here, it hasn't worked anywhere."

He said with recent floods, fires and extreme weather, there was powerful evidence the climate crisis was having a harsh impact on Australia.

"Mother Nature (is) now speaking very loudly and persuasively, in keeping with what the scientists predicted would unfold," he said.

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22 killed in suicide bomb near Baghdad

A SUICIDE bomber has blown himself up near a group of anti-Qaeda fighters as they were receiving salaries north of Baghdad, killing 22 people, in the second bloody attack to hit Iraq in as many days.

The blast, which also wounded at least 44 people, came soon after officials raised the salaries of the Sunni militiamen in a bid to placate weeks of anti-government demonstrations in mostly-Sunni areas of the country.

It also comes just a day after a co-ordinated assault on a police headquarters in a disputed city in the north killed 30 people amid a spike in violence nationwide.

The attacker struck at 11am (1900 AEDT) on Monday in Taji, which lies 25 kilometres north of Baghdad, as the fighters were collecting their salaries.

In total, 22 people were killed, the vast majority of them militiamen but also two soldiers, according to a security official and a medical source. At least 44 others were wounded, among them eight soldiers.

Members of the Sahwa, otherwise known as the Awakening Councils or Sons of Iraq, are made up of a collection of Sunni tribal militias that sided with the US military against al-Qaeda from late-2006 onwards, helping turn the tide of Iraq's bloody insurgency.

They are often targeted by Sunni militants linked to al-Qaeda who regard them as traitors.

Violence was also reported in the capital and in the ethnically-mixed northern city of Kirkuk.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a police officer and wounded three of his colleagues, while four people were shot dead overnight in Kirkuk, officials said.

The violence comes as Iraq grapples with a political crisis pitting Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki against his government partners amid weeks of protests calling for him to resign.

No one has claimed responsibility for the spate of attacks but local security officials blame al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq, which often targets security forces and officials in a bid to destabilise the country and push it back towards the sectarian bloodshed of 2005 to 2008.

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UK delivers 'break-up' warning to banks

BRITAIN'S banks will be broken up if they fail to ring-fence retail operations from their investment divisions to avoid any future state bailouts of lenders, finance minister George Osborne has warned.

As the government formally published legislation aimed at radically altering the landscape of Britain's financial sector, Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne used a speech to say that "2013 is the year when we re-set our banking system."

Addressing staff at US investment banking giant JP Morgan in Bournemouth, southern England, he said: "My message to the banks is clear: if a bank flouts the rules, the regulator and the Treasury will have the power to break it up altogether - full separation, not just a ring fence."

Osborne said: "In the jargon, we will 'electrify the ring fence'," adding that the Bank of England would be "the super cop" of Britain's financial system going forward.

The chancellor outlined four key changes - "a brand new watchdog with new powers to keep our banks safe so they don't bring down the economy"; "a new law to separate the branch on the high street from the dealing floor ... to protect taxpayers when mistakes are made", "changing the whole culture and ethics" of banking and giving "customers the most powerful weapon of all: choice".

The government had already announced plans to force banks to ring-fence operations by 2019, in a bid to avoid taxpayers having to bail out troubled banks such as RBS and Lloyds - as was the case during the financial crisis.

But the draft law has been toughened after Britain's Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards recently complained that the proposals fell "well short of what is required".

Osborne had previously warned the commission against "unpicking the consensus" on structural reform of the banking sector but appears to have accepted its warning that the draft law left room for loopholes.

"Today, we are publishing the legislation that will turn ... this consensus for change into law," he said on Monday.

"A law for the first time ever, to separate the retail and investment arms of banks, and erect a ring fence around the retail bank so its essential operations continue even if the whole bank fails."

Osborne said he expected the legislation to be passed by parliament within a year's time.

The announcement puts the finance minister on a collision course with Britain's banks, which claim the legislation would make London less attractive as a global financial centre.

"This will create uncertainty for investors, making it more difficult for banks to raise capital, which will ultimately mean that banks will have less money to lend to businesses," said Anthony Browne, chief executive of the British Bankers' Association.

"Above all, what banks and business need is regulatory certainty so that banks can get on with what they want to do, which is help the economy grow," he added.

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UNHCR slams conditions on Manus Island

THE UN refugee agency has slammed the federal government's immigration detention centre in Papua New Guinea and has called for the transfer of children to be suspended.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says it has found significant shortcomings in how asylum seekers are transferred, treated and processed on PNG's Manus Island.

The UNCHR's damning assessment comes after its officials made a three-day visit to Manus a fortnight ago.

Its report finds that the government's current regime is inconsistent with Australia's international obligations.

The mandatory detention of 34 children and their families at the centre is particularly troubling, UNHCR regional representative Richard Towle said in a statement accompanying the report.

The report calls on the government to cease transferring children until all appropriate legal and administrative safeguards for their processing and treatment are in place.

That should include arrangements to house them in an "open centre" as opposed to the current detention centre, it says.

The UNHCR says it is also deeply concerned about the lack of a legal framework under which refugee claims can be assessed in PNG and the capacity and expertise of officials to process such claims.

"Asylum seekers are distressed and confused about their situation. They are in closed detention, without a process in sight. They feel they have been forgotten," Mr Towle said.

Transfers to Manus Island began in November. There were more than 200 asylum seekers there when the UNHCR visited.

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Thai cop arrested with 20 elephant tusks

A THAI policeman has been arrested after he was caught trying to smuggle 20 elephant tusks, officials say.

The haul was discovered when the suspect - in plain clothes but driving a police van - was stopped at a checkpoint in the southern province of Chumphon on Saturday, Police Colonel Chalard Polnakarn told AFP.

"We found 10 pairs of elephant tusks in the van and charged him with illegal possession of elephant tusks, which he confessed to during the investigation," Chalard said.

The origin of the tusks was unclear.

International trade in elephant ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989.

But a rise in the illegal trade in ivory has been fuelled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks are used in traditional medicines and to make ornaments.

Conservationists say ivory from Africa is often smuggled into Thailand and passed off as coming from Thai elephants, as a legal loophole allows the legal trade in ivory from domesticated elephants.

Wildlife campaign group Freeland praised the latest seizure as a "valiant act of fighting corruption to protect wildlife".

"We need more officers like them to fight this new form of transnational organised crime," Freeland director Steven Galster said in a statement.

Freeland said that in the past year thousands of tusks had been seized as they were smuggled into Asia from Africa due to "rampant elephant poaching".

It comes as Thailand prepares to host the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) in Bangkok in March.

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Steve Bracks a chance for Roxon's seat

FORMER Victorian premier Steve Bracks only has to ask, to be handed the safe Labor seat of Gellibrand replacing Nicola Roxon, who is retiring from politics, Fairfax Media says.

Insiders have told Fairfax that the seat, which overlaps Mr Bracks' former state seat of Williamstown, was his for the taking.

He lives in the electorate and is being touted as a natural fit.

Mr Bracks, who shocked Victoria by quitting politics in July 2007, is on a walking holiday in Tasmania and could not be contacted.

His only other rival for the seat would be Senator David Feeney, one of the so-called faceless men who helped Julia Gillard depose Kevin Rudd as prime minister.

Senator Feeney occupies the No.3 position on Labor's Victorian Senate ticket, and is unlikely to be re-elected given Labor's poor standing in opinion polls.

But Fairfax says it would be impossible to deny Mr Bracks if he wanted to return to politics on the federal stage.

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Drug tracking system needs checks: experts

A NATIONAL system to track addictive drug prescriptions might reduce overprescribing but could lead to unintended consequences, experts say.

The proposed reporting system for potentially addictive drugs such as morphine is worthwhile if it provides opioids - schedule eight drugs - to those with a genuine need for them, says Dr Fiona Shand from the University of New South Wales' Black Dog Institute.

But if patients are detected "doctor shopping" - visiting different GPs and chemists to fulfil multiple drug scripts - doctors need to respond appropriately, she says.

"Clearly, if a person has been doctor shopping it may be that their pain is not well managed or that they have developed a dependence on the drug and they actually need professional assistance with that," Dr Shand told AAP.

There were also concerns that if patients dependent on prescription opioids could no longer access those drugs, they would simply switch to other illicit or prescription substances, Dr Shand said.

"We want to see prescription opioids available to people who need them," she said.

"We just want to make sure that they are used in a way that doesn't harm people and ... this system can really help with that."

In an article in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, Dr Shand and co-authors said the system would need to be closely monitored for unintended consequences.

There was little research available on real-time monitoring systems around the world but a review of a system in Ohio found doctors changed opioid prescriptions in 41 per cent of cases.

Of those, 61 per cent received no opioids or less than previously while 39 per cent got higher doses.

Dr Shand said this suggested that in more than a third of cases, the information available to doctors increased their confidence in prescribing opioids after reviewing the patient's history.

The federal government committed $5 million last February to establish a real-time prescription reporting system for schedule eight drugs.

The move came after evidence, including from coronial inquests, that patients were overdosing on prescription drugs after doctor shopping.

Tasmania is the only state with a real-time prescription monitoring program.

A Victorian coroner recommended the state government implement its own system if the federal program was delayed or proved inadequate, following a spate of prescription drug-related deaths in Victoria.

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