Death toll in Beirut blast rises to 7

LEBANON'S state news agency says a 19-year-old man wounded in the car bombing in central Beirut has died, raising the death toll in the attack to seven.

The National News Agency says Mohammed Shaar died on Saturday from massive wounds sustained in the Friday blast, which targeted prominent Lebanese politician Mohammed Chatah.

The 62-year-old Chatah, who was a critic of Syria and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, also was killed in the explosion.

Officials say Chatah is to be buried at noon on Sunday in the towering Mohammed Al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut.

The Lebanese government has declared Sunday a day of mourning.

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China one-child policy change approved

Chinese state media says the National People's Congress has approved to change its one-child policy. Source: AAP

CHINA'S top legislature has sanctioned the ruling Communist Party's decision to allow couples to have a second child if one parent is an only child.

It's the first major easing in three decades of the restrictive national birth planning policy.

Implemented around 1980, China's birth policy has limited most couples to only one child, but has allowed a second child if neither parent has siblings or if the first born to a rural couple is a girl.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the standing committee of the National People's Congress approved a resolution on Saturday to formalise the party decision.

It says the national lawmaking body has delegated the power to provincial people's congresses and their standing committees to implement the new policy.

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Port Hedland evacuates due to cyclone

A cyclone warning has been issued for coastal areas along Western Australia's northern coast. Source: AAP

SHIPS are being moved from a major port in Western Australia ahead of a developing tropical cyclone expected to hit on Saturday night.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says a tropical low north of WA is expected to develop into a tropical cyclone by Saturday night as it moves southwest.

The low is 340 kilometres north-northwest of Broome, moving at nine kilometres an hour.

The Port Hedland Port Authority began the evacuation of 29 vessels in the inner and outer anchorage areas on Saturday morning.

Another 12 ships in the inner harbour also began evacuating on Saturday.

The port authority said in a statement it anticipated the last vessel would leave the shipping channel by 3am on Sunday.

Gale-force winds and widespread rainfall are expected to hit the Port Hedland area on Sunday.

Winds with gusts of up to 100km/h are forecast to develop through Saturday night on the west Kimberley coast between Cape Leveque and Broome.

BOM advises gales and heavy rainfall may extend to Exmouth and adjacent inland areas on Sunday night and Monday.

If the tropical low system develops as BOM expects, a severe tropical cyclone will likely hit the Pilbara on Monday or Tuesday.

A cyclone warning is in place for coastal areas from Cape Leveque to Whim Creek.

The State Emergency Service is urging residents in or near coastal communities between Dampier Peninsula and Onslow in the Kimberley and Pilbara to prepare emergency kits.

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Refugee group calls for ambassador asylum

Scott Morrison says a request for asylum by Zimbabwe's ambassador will be judged on its merits. Source: AAP

A REFUGEE advocacy group has called for the Australian government to grant asylum to the Zimbabwean ambassador to Australia.

But the Refugee Action Coalition has used ambassador Jacqueline Zwambila's plight to highlight the "government's inconsistencies in dealing with the issue of protection visas".

Ms Zwambila revealed she was asking the Australian government for asylum because she feared for her life if she returned home when her term ends on Tuesday.

She is aligned to Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.

Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said that with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's supposed coalition with the MDC at an end, there was no doubt Ms Zwambila was at risk should she be forced to return to that country.

"The Australian government should act quickly," he said in a statement.

However, Mr Rintoul said many asylum seekers were arriving by boat with cases as compelling as Ms Zwambila's.

"But under (Immigration Minister) Scott Morrison's regime there are two rules - one for plane arrivals and another for asylum seekers coming by boat," he said.

"The Zimbabwean ambassador needs protection, and so do all those asylum seekers who arrive by boat."

Ms Zwambila told Fairfax Media on Saturday she knew it meant the end of her term when Mr Mugabe won elections earlier this year.

"Once the elections of 31 July were stolen by the current government - which is illegitimate - I knew that this was the end of the line," she says in a video on the Canberra Times website.

"End of the line for the people of Zimbabwe ... and for people like me, who were appointed by the ex-prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai."

Mr Morrison said an application for a protection visa would be assessed on merit "and in accordance with the normal rules that apply in these circumstances".

"The government does not provide commentary on individual cases as it can prejudice their case or, worse, place people at risk," he said in a statement.

Mr Mugabe, 89, long considered an international pariah, finished with 61 per cent of the vote at the election, amid claims of intimidation and tampering with electoral rolls.

He called on his opponents to accept defeat or commit suicide, telling the New York Times that "even dogs will not sniff at their flesh if they choose to die that way".

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Five die in Beirut bombing

A POWERFUL bombing has rocked a central business district of central Beirut setting cars ablaze and killing five people, including a senior aide to former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, officials said.

The National News Agency said Mohammed Chatah and his driver were both killed in the explosion, which wounded more than 70 others.

Lebanon has seen a wave of bombings over the past months as tensions rise over Syria's civil war. Hariri heads the main, Western-backed coalition in Lebanon which is engaged in bitter feuding with the militant Hezbollah group, which is allied to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The blast was heard across the city and sent thick black smoke billowing in the downtown posh commercial district behind the government house and above the seafront of the Lebanese capital.

The army cordoned off the area to prevent people from getting close to the scene, where the twisted wreckage of several cars was still smouldering. The explosion appeared to be the result of the car bomb, but security officials said they had no immediate confirmation.

Footage broadcast on Lebanese TV showed medical workers rushing the wounded to ambulances. At least two bodies could be seen lying on the pavement.

The conflict next door has raised tensions in Lebanon's Sunni and Shi'ite communities as each side lines up in support of their brethren in the conflict next door.

That has fuelled predictions that Lebanon, still recovering from its 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, is on the brink of descending into full-blown sectarian violence.

Chatah, a prominent economist and former ambassador to the US, was one of the closest aides to former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a truck bombing in Beirut in 2005, not far from Friday's explosion.

He later became finance minister when Hariri's son, Saad, took over the premiership, and stayed on as his senior adviser after he lost the post in early 2011.

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German teenager dies in Tasmania crash

A GERMAN teenager has been killed in a single-vehicle accident in a remote part of Tasmania.

The 18-year-old woman's body was found in a vehicle that rolled on a dirt road in the Leven Canyon area.

Her 20-year-old companion is being treated in hospital.

Police said the pair were tourists and were on a narrow dirt road when the driver lost control on Friday afternoon.

The death is the first in Tasmania and the 14th nationally during the festive season toll period.

The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2013 until 2359 January 3, 2014, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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Canoeist missing at NSW dam

A MAN remains missing after falling out of a capsizing canoe and failing to surface at a dam in the NSW Southern Tablelands.

Police said the 21-year-old was one of three young men thrown into the water when the canoe tipped over on the Pejar Dam at Crookwell at about 7pm (AEDT) on Thursday.

The other two, aged in their late teens, managed to swim to shore and signal for help.

The 21-year-old did not surface and a search of the dam was conducted by local police, the SES and a rescue helicopter.

The two younger men were treated at the scene by paramedics and taken to Goulburn Hospital with suspected hypothermia.

The search was suspended at 9.30pm with weather conditions deteriorating and no sign of the man.

Local police, the Police Rescue Squad and SES volunteers will resume the search on Friday morning.

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Weekly US jobless claims drop 42,000

THE number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits dropped by 42,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 338,000, the biggest drop since November 2012.

But economists say the figures from late November and December are warped by seasonal volatility around the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's holidays.

The US Labor Department says the less-volatile four-week average rose 4250 to 348,000.

Claims had jumped 75,000 in the two weeks that ended December 14 before plunging last week.

Unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs and are now consistent with a solid job market.

Hiring has been healthy the past four months. The economy added an average of 204,000 jobs every month from August through November, an improvement from earlier this year.

The unemployment rate fell in November to 7 per cent.

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Donors needed to get over blood hurdle

PEOPLE are being urged to roll up their sleeves to help Australians get over one of the last hurdles of 2013.

In the lead-up to the New Year's Day holiday, the Australian Red Cross Blood Service needs to ensure it has a constant supply of platelets, a blood product often used by cancer patients.

Donations cannot be made on January 1 and the service needs 3000 Aussies to make appointments for December 31 and January 2.

Blood service spokesman Shaun Inguanzo says platelets have a shelf life of five days, which means stock collected on Friday will have expired or run out by New Year's Day, unless there's a constant flow of donations.

"In particular, we really need donors in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria," Mr Inguanzo said.

One in three Australians would need donated blood in their lifetime, he said.

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Ambush in Central African Republic

SIX Chadian peacekeepers have been killed and 15 wounded after being ambushed in the Central African Republic's chaotic capital, the spokesman for an African Union peacekeeping force says.

Eloi Yao told The Associated Press by telephone on Thursday that the peacekeepers were attacked at noon on Wednesday but the identity of the attackers was unclear.

The Chadian contingent, which is made up of Arabic-speaking Muslim soldiers, has been accused of taking sides in the country's communal conflict.

They are seen as being anti-Christian and of having sided with the Muslim rebels who grabbed power in a coup nine months ago.

The attack further underscores the messy nature of the conflict in the Central African Republic, where both French and AU forces have come under attack.

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A very merry Christmas for Aussie shops

THE Christmas clock is ticking, and the tills have been ringing.

Last-minute shoppers have helped push Australian retailers towards what's tipped to be their biggest Christmas since the global financial crisis hit.

Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) CEO Margy Osmond says the overall spend in the four-week run-up to Christmas this year is expected to hit $29.6 billion.

"We think Australian retailers will probably have the best Christmas they've had for four or five years," she told AAP on Tuesday.

She said the last-minute rush had favoured the big retailers.

"A lot of the specialty stores have done much better this Christmas but there's no doubt in the last couple of weeks it's the department stores that are the big winners because it's the place you can go and tick every box all in the one spot," Ms Osmond said.

Residents in smaller states - the Northern Territory, the ACT, Tasmania - had generally gotten their Christmas shopping out of the way early, while their counterparts in NSW and Victoria were more likely to have left it till the last minute.

Kevin Finch was looking harried in Sydney's CBD on Tuesday evening, ticking off the people he was still buying for.

"My mother, my father, some family friends, and my grandma," he told AAP.

"Stupidly, I thought today would be a bit quieter."

He said he wouldn't be venturing out for the Boxing Day sales on Thursday, but keen bargain-hunters can get in earlier than that.

In a break with tradition, department store David Jones has already launched its post-Christmas sale online, while the Myer online sale will kick off at 9am (AEDT) on Wednesday.

ANRA's Margy Osmond is expecting a 5.6 per cent boost on post-Christmas sales figures from a year ago, with an expected $1.9 billion spend on Boxing Day alone.

Retailers predict stores around the country will take in more than $15 billion over the next three weeks, with the bulk of that likely to be spent on Boxing Day.

Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman told AAP he expects "a huge number of people" to head for malls around the country when the bricks-and-mortar sales start on Thursday.

But Mr Zimmerman didn't think the lure of early sales online would take away from the familiar frenzy seen in department stores on the day.

"There's a real atmosphere around Boxing Day sales, it's full of people, it's full of excitement and noise and generally speaking there's entertainment around," he said.

"You may well find that people will be encouraged to come out, they'll think it might not be quite so busy as it's been in the past because of the online sales, but I suspect it will be just as busy."

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Two young boys taken from Qld home

TWO young boys taken from a home south of Brisbane by a man in a silver sedan may be at risk, say police, who are seeking urgent public assistance to find them.

The boys, aged three and four, were taken from a residence in Errol Street, Loganlea, at around 3.30pm (AEST) on Tuesday.

Police said the boys were taken by a 30-year-old man who was known to them and they "may be at risk".

The man is described as being of Papua New Guinean appearance, 180cm tall, of heavy build, tanned complexion, with collar length dark curly hair, a black bushy beard and wearing black shorts and a black T-shirt.

The children are described as having very short haircuts, one having a tanned complexion and the other being described as fair.

Both are believed to be wearing denim shorts and one boy was not wearing a shirt.

Police say the man was driving a silver 2003 Toyota Camry sedan bearing Queensland registration 564IGC.

The car was last seen at Logan Village on Camp Cable Road around 4.45pm and was travelling west.

Police urge anyone with information to ring 131 564.

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Remember those doing it tough at Xmas: PM

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has paid tribute to Australians spending Christmas away from their families in the service of others.

In his first Christmas message in the top job, Mr Abbott urged Australians to live up to their good nature and lend a hand to those doing it tough during the holiday season.

"We are a good and generous people," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mr Abbott made special mention of members of Australia's armed forces, and emergency workers who were missing Christmas lunches and dinners with their families so they can keep the community safe.

"This Christmas I pay tribute to everyone who's away from family because of their service to our country and our communities," he said.

"We all hope you have a quiet day."

He also thanked those working for charities looking after the less fortunate on Christmas Day.

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Remember those facing tough times: Oppn

FEDERAL Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has called on Australians to remember those facing an uncertain future this Christmas.

Mr Shorten said he was also thinking of emergency services workers and defence personnel.

"We'll be thinking of those who are working through the holidays," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We're also thinking of those who might be out of work this Christmas, or facing an uncertain future," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, 2900 Holden workers in Victoria and South Australia found out they would lose their jobs when Holden ceases making cars in 2017.

Mr Shorten said while Christmas was a celebration and a time for being with loved ones, it could be a hard time for many families.

"If you can, please reach out to those who might not be as fortunate," he said.

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Archbishop questions asylum seeker policy

THE federal government's treatment of asylum seekers suggests there would be "no room at the inn" for Mary and Joseph in a modern day Australia, Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide Jeffrey Driver says.

In a Christmas message, Archbishop Driver says that in 2013, the holy family could be called internally displaced persons, travelling to Bethlehem to comply with a census ordered by a "super-power" that "wanted to impose its administrative structures".

A few days later, fleeing across the border to Egypt to escape a massacre, they had become refugees.

Archbishop driver says recent decisions by the commonwealth on asylum seekers to call such people who flee their homes illegal arrivals and to limit the number of temporary protection visas, suggest that they would not be welcome if they arrived in Australia today.

Archbishop Driver said no one was arguing that Australia have an open-door policy for limitless arrivals.

But he said that policy must be humane.

"The story of Christmas and the holy family calls for something better than we are presently seeing, an extraordinarily expensive process that risks dehumanising even those lucky enough to get into it," he said.

"Room at the Inn?

"Surely there must be, at least for some of the most frail and vulnerable no matter how they come."

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Church leaders reflect on Christmas

CHURCH leaders have used their annual Christmas messages to attack the "selfie" culture, call for the faithful to cheer up, and condemn politicians' response to the plight of asylum seekers.

The nation's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, says the church's primary challenge could be responding to those "thirsting for God", not atheism.

He warned Christians not to become "sourpusses".

"Christians cannot answer this challenge if we look like we have just come from a funeral," he said in his Christmas message on Tuesday.

The newly minted Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Glenn Davies, said Christmas was a good time to reflect on the rise of the selfie in Australian popular culture.

"At Christmas time we should remember that there is an ultimate self-image, the image of God, which far outweighs the supercilious picture of a face filling our screen," Dr Davies said on Christmas Eve.

"We are all stamped with the image of God and it is this image that makes us precious in his sight."

His counterpart in South Australia, Adelaide Archbishop Jeffrey Driver, said that in 2013 we'd think of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees - and based on the federal government's recent record, modern-day Australia would turn them away.

"The story of Christmas and the holy family calls for something better than we are presently seeing, an extraordinarily expensive process that risks dehumanising even those lucky enough to get into it," he said.

The National Council of Churches in Australia took a similar theme with a call for social justice in 2014.

"Clearly Jesus as God with us knows the experience of those seeking asylum in another land," the council's general-secretary, Reverend Tara Curlewis, said.

"He knows the experience of the poor and the homeless. Jesus is God with us in all life's experiences.

"May we in Australia know and see God with us."

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Amphetamine abuse growing: report

AMPHETAMINES have surged ahead of alcohol as the main substance addicted Australians seek treatment for, a report from a rehabilitation centre has found.

Odyssey House released its latest annual report on Monday.

It found addiction to amphetamines - including ice, speed or ecstasy - was the main substance of concern for a third of people seeking treatment, outstripping alcohol, cannabis and heroin for a second year.

Chief executive Jamie Pitts says the latest figures for amphetamine addiction are up 120 per cent on 2003 figures, while the figures for heroin addiction have fallen to their lowest point.

Ten years ago, Australia was in the grip of a serious heroin problem, he says, and 45 per cent of Odyssey House clients were admitted with opiate dependence.

That percentage has more than halved over the past decade.

"While this reduction is good news, it's due mainly to heroin supply issues," Mr Pitts said in a statement.

"People have turned instead to ice and speed because it's more readily available and affordable."

Booze remains a major problem for Australians, the report finds, with 28 per cent of those entering Odyssey House residential programs in the 2012-13 financial year reporting that alcohol was their main drug of concern.

"Seventy per cent of our clients list alcohol as one of their problem drugs, and it's the substance they're most likely to start misusing first, providing that slippery slope towards illicit drugs," Mr Pitts said.

More than half of those who sought help at Odyssey House had a co-existing mental illness.

The report also found people entering Odyssey House were more likely to have started using drugs at a younger age.

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