NSW healthcare system 'working well'

RATES of premature death from cancer, heart disease and stroke have fallen across NSW, but further improvements could be made in the state's health care system, a report says.

Results from the third annual Healthcare in Focus 2012 report, which compares the performance of the NSW health care system with other states and countries, found fewer years of life are lost to cancer and heart disease in NSW than in most other countries, Bureau of Health Information chief Kim Browne said.

"NSW is performing quite well when we compare internationally," Ms Browne told AAP.

"(But) there are areas where we've got opportunities to improve compared to international comparators."

The report indicated NSW has one of the lowest rates of potential years of life lost to cancer, outperforming France, The Netherlands, New Zealand and the US.

Only Sweden has a lower rate, Ms Browne said.

Fewer years of life were lost to cardiovascular disease and stroke in NSW than in most other countries, the report found.

Ms Browne added fewer years of life were lost to heart attack in NSW than in any of the 10 other countries examined in the report.

But there are areas of the health care system that can be improved, she said.

"Unplanned readmissions for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are mid-range ... but they're higher than places like Canada, the UK and Switzerland," she told AAP.

NSW also has a high rate of hospitalisation for diabetic, medical and surgical care complications, a statistic Ms Browne would like to see decrease.

"It's a bit of a mixed picture but overall when we look internationally NSW tends to perform fairly well," Ms Browne said.

Health care system users were surveyed as part of the report and the majority rated their experiences and treatment positively, she said.

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Opposition claims Egypt 'vote rigging'

THE opposition accused Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood of attempted "vote rigging" in today's referendum on a new constitution for Egypt.

The National Salvation Front, in a statement, expressed "deep concern... over the number of irregularities and violations in the holding of the referendum," charging it "points to a clear desire for vote rigging by the Muslim Brotherhood."

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Mandela undergoes gallstone surgery

SOUTH Africa's presidency says Nelson Mandela has undergone successful surgery to remove gallstones.

The presidency said the 94-year-old Mandela underwent the surgery overnight. The presidency said Mr Mandela's doctors wanted to treat a recurrent lung infection before putting him through the surgery.

The statement said: "The procedure was successful and Madiba is recovering." It referred to Mandela by his clan name as a sign of affection.

Mr Mandela has been in hospital since Dec. 8.

Mr Mandela is revered for being a leader of the struggle against racist white rule in South Africa. He served one five-year term as president before retiring from public life.

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Bodies removed from US massacre school

THE bodies of 20 young children and six adults massacred by a lone gunman in a quiet US town were finally removed from the blood-soaked school, police said.

The formal identification of the victims in one of America's worst mass shootings marked a new chapter for horrified residents of Newtown, Connecticut, where Friday morning a 20-year-old man walked in with at least two powerful pistols and shot everyone he could find in two rooms of the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"By early this morning, they were able to positively identify all of the victims and make formal identification to all of the families of the victims," said Connecticut State Police spokesman Lieutenant Paul Vance.

The removal of bodies, which were initially left for investigators, "has been accomplished," he said on CBS television. "That was done overnight."

The gunman shot dead 18 children inside the school and two more died of their wounds shortly afterwards. Six adults, including the school principal, perished before the gunman died - apparently in a suicide.

Authorities offered little clue as to the motive for the shootings in Newtown, a wooded and picturesque small town northeast of New York City.

Hours after the shooting, hundreds of people gathered for a vigil, the crowd filling the church to capacity and spilling outside its doors.

"This is a kind of community, when things like that happen, they really pull together," the priest, Robert Weiss, said during the Mass.

A letter from Pope Benedict XVI was also read during the service.

Pope Benedict XVI sent his condolences to the community, in a letter read aloud at a vigil in Newtown Friday evening.

The pope "has asked me to convey his heartfelt grief and the assurance of his closeness in prayer to the victims and their families, and to all affected by the shocking event," Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said in the letter.

"In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy he asks God our Father to console all those who mourn and to sustain the entire community," the letter said.

David Connors, whose triplets were at the school during the shooting but were unharmed, said he was still horrified.

"It's hard. I've never imagined a thing like that could happen here."

"Our faith is tested," state Governor Dan Malloy told the congregants.

"Not just necessarily our faith in God, but our faith in community, and who we are, and what we collectively are."

Earlier the governor had said "evil visited this community today."

US President Barack Obama, wiping away tears and struggling to maintain his composure, said he was aghast over the tragedy.

State police spokesman Vance said just one injured person survived, indicating that the gunman was unusually accurate or methodical in his fire.

The majority of killings, which began at around 9:30am local time, "took place in one section of the school, in two rooms," Vance added. The children were aged between five and 10, officials said.

The killer was identified as Adam Lanza, 20. Initially, police told media they thought the murderer was his brother, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, whose identity card had been found on the shooter's dead body.

The surviving brother was in custody and being questioned, according to US television reports.

Many news outlets said another victim found in a home in Newtown - the 28th body in the day's bloodshed - was the shooter's mother, who was a teacher at Sandy Hook and whom he had killed before driving to the school.

Mr Obama went on national television to express his "overwhelming grief." He ordered flags to be lowered to half mast.

And there were similar statements of grief and shock around the world.

The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, spoke of his "deep shock and horror," the Queen sent a message to Mr Obama in which she said she was "deeply shocked and saddened," and French President Francois Hollande expressed his condolences to Mr Obama, saying the news "horrified me."

Of all US campus shootings, the toll was second only to the 32 murders in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech university.

The latest number far exceeded the 15 killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which triggered a fierce but inconclusive debate about the United States' relaxed gun control laws.

However, the White House has scotched any suggestion that the politically explosive subject would be quickly reopened.

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Queen gets art trove as jubilee gift

WHAT do you get the woman who has everything? Britain's Royal Academy of Arts has presented the Queen with works by some of the country's leading artists to mark the monarch's 60 years on the throne.

The 97 works on paper include a royal portrait by Tracey Emin, a celebratory Diamond Jubilee drawing done on an iPad by David Hockney and pieces by Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Grayson Perry.

All the artists are members of the Royal Academy, the elite artistic society founded in 1768.

The artworks will go on public display at Buckingham Palace next year.

Martin Clayton, senior curator of prints and drawings at the Royal Collection Trust, called the gift "a vivid cross-section of the best of contemporary British art."

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Son-in-law of Tunisia's Ben Ali arrested in Seychelles

THE son-in-law of Tunisia's deposed former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been arrested in the Seychelles, the Tunisian authorities announced.

Sakhr El Materi, who was convicted in absentia of corruption by a Tunisian court, fled to Qatar just before the overthrow of his father-in-law's regime in last year's uprising, but the Gulf emirate agreed to expel him in September.

Fadhel Saihi, an adviser to the Tunisian justice minister, told Mosaique FM that Materi was arrested as he tried to enter the Seychelles with an expired diplomatic passport, and that he was being interrogated by police there.

Justice Minister Noureddine Bhiri said Tunis was doing everything it could to get him extradited.

"Sakhr El Materi went to the Seychelles after leaving Qatar. The Seychelles authorities opened an inquiry, because he was the subject of an international arrest warrant and because his passport had expired," Mr Bhiri said.

"The Tunisian authorities will do everything they can to get Sakhr El Materi extradited," he added, speaking at a seminar on recovering the assets of the Ben Ali family.

Ben Ali and his close family used to go on holiday to the Seychelles in secret prior to the revolution.

Said to be the ex-dictator's favourite son-in-law and long seen as a possible successor, Materi was sentenced last year to 16 years in prison and fined 97 million dinars ($59 million) for corruption and property fraud.

Married to Ben Ali's eldest daughter Nesrine, the 31-year-old businessman owned Princess Holding and was active in virtually every economic sector.

His properties have either been confiscated or placed under state administration.

The Tunisian state announced in July that it would sell his 25 per cent stake in mobile phone operator Tunisiana and his 59 percent stake in car dealership firm Ennakl, the agents in Tunisia for German carmaker Volkswagen.

Tunis has called on countries hosting fugitive members of the Ben Ali family to bring them to trial and return their properties to Tunisia.

The north African country has repeatedly asked Saudi Arabia, where Ben Ali took refuge with his wife Leila Trabelsi after they fled Tunisia on January 14, 2011, to extradite him.

Ben Ali has been sentenced in absentia to life in prison for presiding over the bloody protest crackdown that ignited the Arab Spring, and convicted on other charges that include incitement to murder, embezzlement and abuse of power.

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Ex-cop sentenced for journalist's murder

A MOSCOW judge has sentenced a former police officer to 11 years jail and fined him 3 million rubles ($A95,400) for his part in the 2006 murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who prosecutors claimed helped track Politkovskaya's movements and provided the triggerman with a gun, had struck a plea bargain qualifying him for a reduced sentence in exchange for co-operation.

Politkovskaya's family opposed the deal, which allowed Pavlyuchenkov to admit guilt without testifying, on the grounds it would not help find the masterminds of the killing.

The alleged gunman and four other defendants will be tried separately.

Politkovskaya, a sharp critic of Kremlin policies in Chechnya, was gunned down in her apartment building on October 7, 2006.

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'Inaction' not option in Syria: Cameron

DOING nothing is not an option in Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron says as his European Union counterparts pledge to look at "all options" available to support the opposition and civilians.

"Inaction and indifference are not options," Cameron, whose government has formally recognised a recently formed Syrian opposition coalition, said in Friday.

The situation in Syria, with more than 40,000 now dead, was "truly dreadful and getting worse", he said, adding that there was "no single, simple answer".

In a statement issued at the close of an EU summit, leaders said they were "appalled by the increasingly deteriorating situation in Syria" and urged their foreign ministers to "work on all options to support and help the opposition and to enable greater support for the protection of civilians".

They said President Bashar al-Assad had to go, with Cameron wanting the "speediest transition possible" to avoid more bloodshed.

Earlier, French President Francois Hollande had said Assad was losing and must be made to leave as quickly as possible.

"On the ground, the war is now turning against Assad and we should set ourselves this objective - make Assad leave as quickly as possible," he said.

The EU so far has stopped short of full recognition of the opposition, although earlier this week EU foreign ministers met the leader of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces at talks in Brussels.

Some EU member states are cautious about extending full recognition to the coalition because of doubts over how representative it is and its democratic credentials.

In their statement on Friday, EU leaders said they supported a future Syria that "is democratic and inclusive with full support for human rights and the rights of minorities.

"The European Council will continue to address the situation in Syria as a matter of priority," they said.

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Kidman in running for Globes double

NICOLE Kidman has scored two nominations for next year's Golden Globes awards - and other Aussies in the mix include her pal Naomi Watts, and Hugh Jackman.

Kidman was nominated for best performance by an actress in a supporting role, for her confronting performance in The Paperboy (in which, in one scene, she urinates on Zac Efron's foot).

She also is in the running for best performance by an actress in a made-for-TV movie or miniseries, as writer Martha Gellhorn in Hemingway & Gellhorn.

Naomi Watts was nominated for best performance by an actress, for her harrowing lead in The Impossible, about the 2004 tsunami hitting Thailand.

And Hugh Jackman was nominated for best actor in a comedy or musical, for his Jean Valjean in the big-screen Les Miserables.

The best movie nominations, considered an early indicator for Oscars favouritism, were Ben Affleck's Argo, Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, Ang Lee's Life of Pi, Steven Spielberg's Lincoln and Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty.

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US retail sales rise 0.3 per cent

AMERICANS spent more on cars, electronics and building supplies in November, and shopped more frequently online. The data suggests the economy is rebounding from disruptions caused by Superstorm Sandy.

The Commerce Department says retail sales rose 0.3 per cent in November, offsetting a 0.3 per cent decline in October. When excluding gas station sales, retail sales increased 0.8 per cent. The drop in gas station sales reflected lower prices.

The gains were widespread except at department stores, where sales dropped. That's a troubling development at the start of holiday shopping.

Still, sales at non-store retailers, which include online shopping, rose three per cent. That's the biggest monthly gain in 13 months.

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