Malaysian rally calls for polls reform

ABOUT 20,000 Malaysian opposition supporters have gathered in the capital demanding the resignation of the country's Election Commission in the wake of contentious polls.

The opposition claims bias by the commission cost them a historic win against Malaysia's 56-year-old ruling coalition and has filed petitions challenging results in some areas, claiming fraud.

The rally in central Kuala Lumpur on Saturday was the 15th since the May 5 elections, in which the Barisan Nasional (National Front) clung to power despite losing the popular vote in its worst showing ever.

"We have won the elections," opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim told the crowd.

"So we will continue our protests in parliament and outside."

The rallies had raised the spectre of political instability but fears have ebbed as the opposition has tempered its demands after initially refusing to accept the results.

Turnout on Saturday was far lower than opposition officials had predicted, perhaps in part due to a recent spike in pollution from forest fires in nearby Indonesia that also has blanketed Singapore.

"The momentum is dying down," rally participant Faisal Ooi, 55, told AFP.

The government, led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, has rejected charges of cheating. Ruling party figures accuse Anwar of risking instability out of sour grapes over the election result.

Parliament opens Monday and the opposition has said it will not boycott.

The opposition says voter rolls for May's elections were full of irregularities. Supposedly indelible ink introduced by the Election Commission to prevent multiple voting also easily washed off.

Barisan developed Malaysia's economy over the decades but many analysts say the country is losing its competitive edge. The opposition has blamed corruption and repressive tactics by Barisan, and pledged to free up society and improve governance.

The opposition says the Barisan-constructed electoral system unfairly favours the ruling bloc.

Anwar points to the May 5 polls - in which the opposition won the popular vote, but Barisan won more seats thanks to the layout of constituencies - as proof.

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Militants kill two police in India Kashmir

TWO Indian policemen have been shot dead by suspected militants in a high security area of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, police say.

The policemen were shot from point blank range when they were on a regular patrol near the main court complex located in a busy commercial district of Srinagar, a senior police official said on Saturday.

"Both the policemen died at the spot. We don't know as yet who carried out the attack," city police chief Ashiq Bukhari said.

The attack comes at a time when security is being stepped up in the region ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh early next week.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan along the UN-monitored Line of Control (LoC), but both countries claim the region in full and have fought two of their three wars over it.

Rebels opposed to Indian rule of the territory have been mounting shoot-and-run attacks on security personnel at regular intervals in recent times.

In April, armed militants attacked a police patrol near the northern Kashmir town of Sopore, killing four.

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Kerry calls for end to Syria 'imbalance'

US Secretary of State John Kerry says supporters of the Syrian opposition will step up military and other aid in a bid to end an "imbalance" on the ground in President Bashar al-Assad's favour.

Kerry, speaking at a conference of foreign ministers in Qatar on Saturday, said that the United States remained committed to a peace plan that includes a conference in Geneva and a transitional government picked both by Assad and the opposition.

The rebels need more support "for the purpose of being able to get to Geneva and to be able to address the imbalance on the ground," Kerry said.

"The United States and other countries here - in their various ways, each choosing its own approach - will increase the scope and scale of assistance to the political and military opposition," Kerry said.

Kerry said that the governments at the conference - which include stalwart supporters of the rebels Qatar and Saudi Arabia - would work to "coordinate our support" to the opposition's Supreme Military Council.

Kerry accused Assad of an "internationalisation" of the conflict which has claimed nearly 100,000 lives by bringing in the support of Iran and the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah.

"Reliable civilian governance and a stronger and more effective armed opposition will better enable the opposition to be able to provide the counterweight to the initiative of Assad," he said.

President Barack Obama has announced plans to step up assistance to the rebels after concluding that Assad crossed his stated red line by using chemical weapons.

But the United States has said little about its own assistance, with Obama voicing concern about becoming too involved in the increasingly sectarian conflict.

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Attacks kill NATO soldier, 2 Afghan police

TALIBAN militants attacked local security checkpoints in a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan, killing two policemen in a fight that also left 18 insurgents dead, Afghan officials say.

NATO said a coalition service member also died in a militant attack in the south on Saturday, but did not provide further details.

The violence follows NATO's formal handover of security in the entirety of Afghanistan to Kabul's forces - a transition that comes at a time with violence levels matching their worst in nearly 12 years of war.

In northern Afghanistan, Kunduz provincial police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said on Saturday that the Taliban attacked multiple checkpoints at about noon Friday in the provincial capital of the same name, killing one member of the Afghan local police, a community-based force, and wounding two.

The Taliban then moved outside the city where a gun battle with Afghan security forces lasted until about midnight, Hussaini said.

Eighteen Taliban fighters and another local policeman were killed in the battle, and another 11 militants were wounded, he said.

Hussaini posted on his Facebook page a picture of 11 bodies lined up inside the provincial police compound in Kunduz that he said were those of Taliban militants his troops recovered from the scene of the fight.

The Interior Ministry said the battle outside of the city involved Afghan National Police, and that it was conducted independently "without the involvement of any foreigners."

As Afghan forces have become more involved in security operations they have seen a sharp rise in deaths, while casualties among the US-led military coalition have been reducing as the international forces pull back to let the Afghans take the lead.

According to an Associated Press count, 807 Afghan security force members - including soldiers and police - and 365 civilians have been killed so far this year through the end of May. A total of 63 coalition troops were also killed in that span.

Last year through the end of May, Afghan security forces lost 365 soldiers and police and 338 civilians were killed. Coalition forces lost 177 troops during that time.

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Dutch boys, 5 and 7, joyride in nan's car

DUTCH police have briefly detained two brothers aged five and seven who crashed a car after a short joyride.

"A police patrol this morning saw a car with the doors open and two young boys stood next to it," in Bloemendael, west of Amsterdam, police spokeswoman Lenny Beijerbergen said on Saturday.

"The seven-year-old boy told police that he had driven the car around one-and-a-half kilometres, hit a metal post on the pavement and come to a standstill," Beijerbergen said.

A policeman tweeted a photo of the crash scene, saying the car belonged to the boys' grandmother.

The photo, which was quickly removed from Twitter, showed the boys, the car and the uprooted post in a residential street strewn with debris from the car.

"At least I had my seat belt on! And my brother was in the child's seat," the seven-year-old driver said when police turned up, national news agency ANP reported.

"The boys were taken to the police station, given a talking to and made aware of what they've done," Beijerbergen said.

"Then they were taken home. Thankfully they were both unhurt."

She said there was considerable damage to the car and the pavement.

"This is really quite remarkable. I've never seen anything like it. Seven is very young," Beijerbergen said.

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Stonehenge draws 20,000 for solstice

POLICE say more than 20,000 celebrants have gathered at England's famed Stonehenge monument to mark the summer solstice.

The cloud cover on Friday morning prevented bright sunshine at dawn of the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere but a joyous spirit prevailed.

Police say there were fewer arrests than usual with 22 people taken into custody, most for drug-related offences.

The solstice has typically drawn a wide and varied crowd to the mysterious set of standing stones whose purpose remains unclear.

The ancient stone circle on the Salisbury Plain about 130km southwest of London, was built in three phases between 3000BC and 1600BC.

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Bomb kills 14 at Pakistan Shi'ite mosque

A suicide attack on a Shi'ite mosque in northwest Pakistan has killed at least 14 people. Source: AAP

A BOMB attack has killed 14 people and wounded more than 25 others at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque and seminary on the outskirts of Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, police say.

"It was a suicide attack in which 14 people were killed and more than 25 others were wounded," senior police official Shafi Ullah told AFP at the scene on Friday.

"The suicide bomber, who was on foot, first opened fire at police guards who were deployed outside the mosque, then entered the prayer hall where he blew himself up amid worshippers just before the start of prayers."

The mosque and madrassa complex is in Gulshan Colony, a Shi'ite-dominated area on the edge of Peshawar, a city which abuts militant strongholds in the northwestern tribal belt on the Afghan border.

Two other police officials Shaukat Khan and Imran Shahid confirmed the fresh death toll of 14.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but sectarian violence targeting Pakistan's minority Shi'ite community has been on the rise in recent years.

The attack came just days after US officials said they hoped to open peace talks with the Afghan Taliban in Doha, capital of the Gulf state of Qatar.

Shi'ites account for 20 per cent of the mostly Sunni Muslim population in the nuclear-armed state, which suffers from a Taliban insurgency and al-Qaeda-linked violence.

Extremist Sunni militant faction Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for a series of bloody attacks on Shi'ites in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed at least 25 people on June 15.

Earlier on Friday, officials said two members of a pro-government militia were killed when militants armed with guns and rockets attacked their homes in the tribal district of Bajaur on the Afghan border.

About a dozen insurgents attacked the homes near Khar, the main town in Bajaur, late on Thursday, administration official Abdul Haseeb said.

The two elders, who were members of a pro-government tribal militia, were killed and two tribal policemen were wounded, Haseeb told AFP.

Pakistan has for years been fighting homegrown Taliban insurgents in its northwestern border areas with Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan's business capital Karachi gunmen shot dead a politician, his son and a passer-by outside a mosque on Friday.

Sajid Qureshi and his 25-year-old son were targeted in a drive-by shooting as they left the mosque after attending Friday prayers.

"Gunmen on a motorcycle fired at (Sindh) provincial assembly member Sajid Qureshi, his son and a pedestrian when they were coming out of mosque," senior police official Amir Farooqi told AFP.

Qureshi was a member of the secular Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the most powerful political party in Karachi now considering whether to join the government in southern Sindh province.

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UK teacher jailed for abducting pupil

A BRITISH teacher has been sentenced to five years and six months in jail for abducting and having sex with a 15-year-old pupil, nine months after they fled to France and sparked an international manhunt.

Jeremy Forrest, a married 30-year-old maths teacher, was convicted of abduction by a jury on Thursday, and on Friday admitted five further counts of sexual activity with a child.

He was not originally charged with sex offences for legal reasons linked to his extradition from France.

When Forrest was convicted on Thursday after a two-week trial, he had told the girl "I love you" as he was led from the court.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, burst into tears as the verdict was announced and told him: "I'm sorry."

Prosecutors had labelled Forrest a paedophile who had groomed a vulnerable girl, who he first kissed when she was 14. They said he "grossly abused" the trust placed in him as her teacher.

The girl, now 16, said in evidence that she had encouraged the relationship and had gone willingly to France in September when they realised their affair was about to be exposed.

But she was under age at the time - the age of sexual consent in Britain is 16.

She had used a passport belonging to Forrest's wife to get the ferry to France, where the couple were finally caught one week later in Bordeaux after Forrest tried to find work in a bar.

Their secret escape from Britain caused an international manhunt, and her family said in a statement on Thursday that the past nine months had been "like living out your worst nightmare".

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Mount Etna wins World Heritage status

ITALY'S Mount Etna, one of the world's most "active and iconic" volcanoes, has been granted World Heritage status by UNESCO in recognition of its scientific and cultural importance.

The tallest active volcano on the European continent at 3,300 metres, Mount Etna has been written about for 2,700 years and has "one of the world's longest documented records of historical volcanism", according to UNESCO.

"The diverse and accessible assemblage of volcanic features such as summit craters, cinder cones, lava flows, lava caves and the Valle de Bove depression have made Mount Etna a prime destination for research and education," UNESCO said.

The volcano, in the east of Sicily, is one of the most-studied in the world and "continues to influence volcanology, geophysics and other earth science disciplines", UNESCO added.

"Mount Etna's notoriety, scientific importance, and cultural and educational value are of global significance."

Situated near Catania, Sicily's second city, the volcano, which is some 200 kilometres in circumference, was created by a series of eruptions beneath the sea off the ancient coastline of Sicily some 500,000 years ago.

There are still periodic eruptions at the central crater. Lava flows down the sides of the volcano have sometimes threatened villages, which are built up to around 800 metres.

Catania city has been hit several times during eruptions, including being almost completely destroyed by one of the largest recorded eruptions in 1669, after which it was rebuilt in the Baroque style.

The zone listed by UNESCO - largely undeveloped except for a few seismic monitoring stations and some shelters along mountain paths - is part of the Mount Etna National Park, created in 1987.

UNESCO also inscribed the Namib Sand Sea, "the world's only coastal desert that includes extensive dune fields influenced by fog", to the World Heritage list.

Other sites to win World Heritage status on Friday included the El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve in Mexico thanks to their "dramatic combination of desert landforms, comprising both volcanic and dune systems as dominant features".

UNESCO also inscribed 16 wooden tserkvas (churches) in the Carpathian mountains of Poland and Ukraine, saying they were "outstanding examples of the once widespread Orthodox ecclesiastical timber building tradition in the Slavic countries that survives to this day."

UNESCO is currently holding a 10-day annual meeting in Phnom Penh where it is considering whether to add 31 sites to the 962-strong World Heritage List of sites of "outstanding universal value".

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Strong quake felt across north Italy

A 5.2-MAGNITUDE earthquake has hit Tuscany and was felt across northern Italy from Bologna to Florence, the civil protection agency says, adding that no serious injuries have been reported.

"We are checking to see whether any damage has been caused," a civil protection spokeswoman told AFP, adding that the quake struck at a depth of around 5.0 kilometres.

The quake hit 2.0 kilometres from the walled city of Fivizzano in the province of Massa and Carrara in Tuscany, sparking panic among residents who rushed out of houses onto the streets.

Seismologist Marco Mucciarelli from the national experimental oceanographic and geophysics institute told SKY Italia television that tremors felt in Venice and across the top of Italy around the same time were not the same quake but aftershocks.

"There are likely more to come," he said, adding that there were "big problems with communication" in the towns and cities near the epicentre of the quake, slowing efforts to check damage caused.

The quake lasted just a few seconds, according to witnesses speaking to local journalists.

There were reports in the Italian media of damage to houses in Lunigiana in Tuscany, and several elderly people suffering from shock, but no reports of serious injuries or collapsed buildings.

In the city of Reggio Emilia, Italy's Equal Opportunities Minister Josepha Idem cut short a speech as the quake hit and the town hall she was in was evacuated.

Local trains across the region were interrupted but the fast train from Milan to Bologna was running without disruption, according to Italy's rail service.

Fear of earthquakes in the region is high after two powerful quakes wrecked homes and businesses in the neighbouring Emilia Romagna region in May 2012, killing 25 people.

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Life sentence for Rwandan genocide

A RWANDAN-BORN man has been sentenced to life in prison by a Swedish court for committing massacres and crimes against humanity during the 1994 genocide in the Central African country.

Stanislas Mbanenande, 54, a Hutu who holds Swedish citizenship, was found to have instigated and to have been an accessory to murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to murder and kidnappings.

He was found guilty of complicity in the assault on Tutsis who fled attacks on the slopes of Ruhiro Mountain in the southern parts of Kibuye in western Rwanda in April 1994. Hundreds were shot and beaten to death.

Mbanenande was also found to have recruited militant Hutu youth in the mass slaughter of Tutsi civilians, inciting them to attack Tutsis at a Catholic church and a football stadium.

He was also convicted of attempted murder over shooting at crowds of people, the Stockholm District Court's ruling said.

The proceedings opened in November and was the Nordic country's first related to the genocide.

Mbanenande had denied all the charges against him, and his attorney said he planned to appeal.

The court said testimony from witnesses had been crucial in the case and, although the events took place more than 19 years ago, witnesses were able to focus on "key details such as looks [of a person] during extremely traumatic events."

The court rejected claims by the defence that Rwandan authorities had fabricated evidence against Mbanenande. However, it said evidence linking Mbanenande to a massacre in the town of Kibuye was not strong enough.

Hearings were held in Stockholm as well as in Rwanda. Claims for damages presented by 21 victims were rejected by the court, which referred such claims to Rwandan authorities.

Mbanenande was arrested in December 2011 after an extradition request from Rwanda, which Stockholm rejected because of his Swedish citizenship.

An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the ethnic violence over 100 days.

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SKorean airlines ban shark fin as cargo

South Korea's two largest airlines have both imposed a ban on the shipment of shark fin. Source: AAP

SOUTH Korea's two largest airlines, Korean Air and Asiana, have both decided to ban shark fin from their cargo flights as part of a growing global campaign against the Asian delicacy.

Korean Air, which flies to 45 countries, said in a statement on Thursday that it had stopped shipping shark fin from June 10.

"Korean Air has joined a campaign to protect an ecological system by imposing a complete ban on the shipment of shark fin," the statement said.

Asiana, the country's second largest airline, said it was following suit.

"Our airline has decided to stop shipping shark fin," an Asiana spokeswoman told AFP, without saying when the ban would be enforced.

Shark fin soup is served by many hotels and Chinese restaurants in South Korea and is a staple at wedding banquets and corporate parties.

Global shark populations have been destroyed by the trade.

Humans kill about 100 million sharks each year, mostly for their fins, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, which says 90 per cent have disappeared over the past 100 years.

The move brings Korean Air and Asiana into line with a number of other Asian carriers, including Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific which stopped shipping shark fin as cargo last September.

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Betting scandal case doomed to fail: court

A Sydney magistrate has thrown out a betting scandal case against three rugby league identities. Source: AAP

THE case against three rugby league identities embroiled in an alleged betting scandal was doomed to fail, says the Sydney magistrate who threw out the case.

Former rugby league player John Elias, former Parramatta player Brad Murray and Jai Ayoub, the son of Murray's manager Sam Ayoub, had the prosecution against them permanently stayed on Wednesday.

"I find that the prosecution would not be in a position to prove the element of deception beyond a reasonable doubt in all defendants' matters," Magistrate Greg Grogin said in Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday.

"The prosecutions would therefore, if allowed to proceed, inevitably be doomed to failure."

The three men were previously charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception by placing bets on the NRL game between North Queensland and Canterbury on August 21, 2010.

The match was the subject of an unusual betting plunge on the first score being a Cowboys penalty goal which did not eventuate.

All up, they could have won a total of $123,000 from a series of separate wagers.

Former NRL player Ryan Tandy, who played for the Bulldogs that day, was fined $4000 after he was found guilty of trying to manipulate the first scoring point of the match to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage.

In his decision, Magistrate Grogin supported the defence's argument that just because the trio may have received information about actions on the field to force the penalty it did not constitute an offence.

It is the nature of professional sport for people close to players, coaching staff and others to hear information that could affect the outcome of a match, he said.

He also said there was no evidence they took part in planning what happened on the field.

"There is a lack of proximity or causal link between the on-field activity and the placing of the exotic bet," he said.

The magistrate also noted they were not charged with a conspiracy, joint criminal enterprise or common purpose charge.

Counsel for the trio will have their applications for costs heard before the same court on September 20.

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Nigella's case raises politicians' hackles

BRITISH politicians have questioned the way police treated Nigella Lawson's husband after he admitted assaulting the celebrity chef in a restaurant.

Opposition Labour Party MP Sandra Osborne asked in the House of Commons on Thursday if there is one rule for the rich and famous, and another rule for everyone else.

She was referring to advertising mogul Charles Saatchi, who earlier this week was given a police "caution" after admitting assault.

He contacted police after newspapers published photos of him grasping his wife's throat during an argument.

He will not face further charges or penalties.

Osborne said it sent the wrong message to allow someone to receive only a caution after admitting assault.

UK prosecutors' guidelines indicate cautions are appropriate for some assaults.

But, in the House of Lords, Lord Avebury also hit out at the "leniency" shown to Saatchi.

As Lord Avebury spoke, Lawson's father - former chancellor of the exchequer Lord Lawson of Blaby, who was present in the chamber - shook his head.

The Liberal Democrat peer raised the issue as Baroness Northover for the government answered questions on domestic violence.

He asked her: "Do you think that the leniency shown to Mr Saatchi when he half-strangled his wife set the wrong tone?"

Lady Northover replied: "I can't comment on a particular case and I think that what I'm struck by also is the media reaction, which is really very interesting, the support and the sympathy for people who may find themselves in such situations and also that these problems go through every level of society."

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg faced criticism for suggesting Saatchi's clutching of Lawson's throat could have been "just a fleeting thing".

Asked by a female caller to his weekly radio phone-in whether he would have stepped in had he been present, Clegg said he could not say as he did not know the full facts.

"I just don't know. There was this one photograph. I don't know whether that was just a fleeting thing," he said.

He was immediately rebuked by female MPs.

Shadow home office minister Diana Johnson said Clegg's comments were "disgraceful" and called for a debate in the Commons "on how seriously the government take the issue of domestic violence".

On Twitter, Tory MP Sarah Wollaston wrote: "So just don't 'call Clegg' if your partner likes to grab you by the throat to emphasise a point."

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Judge summons Messi in tax fraud case

A SPANISH judge has named Barcelona star Lionel Messi as a suspect in a tax fraud probe and summoned him to appear in court on September 17, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Barcelona says.

The 25-year-old four-time World Player of the Year and his father Jorge Horacio are accused of defrauding Spanish tax authorities of more than four million euros ($A5.8 million).

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Gillard hand-knitted scarf gets $4050 bid

An auction winner has paid more than $12,000 for dinner with Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Source: AAP

AN unknown punter has forked out $4050 to be able to wrap a scarf hand-knitted by Prime Minister Julia Gillard around their neck.

But dinner with senior Liberals Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull proved the top ticket in the annual federal press gallery Midwinter Ball charity auction.

Someone paid $13,000 for the privilege, just pipping a $12,600 bid for a dinner for with Ms Gillard.

The chance for two people to join Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on his daily bike ride followed by breakfast was won with a $7100 bid.

Proceeds from the auction will be divided among a range of charities.

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Ex-Russian wrestler strangled with whip

A RUSSIAN former Olympic wrestler has been found dead after being strangled with a whip and buried in a Siberian forest, Russian investigators say.

The sportsman turned trainer, Chechen-Ool Mongush, 40, was apparently murdered by a herdsman who choked him to death with the lash of his whip and then buried the body in a forest in Tyva, a largely Buddhist region of southern Siberia.

The president of Tyva's federation of freestyle wrestling Vladimir Tulush confirmed to AFP that the victim was Mongush, who competed in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, where he placed fourth in the flyweight category, and was Russia's freestyle wrestling champion in 1995.

"He was the first to go to the Olympic Games from Tyva, he worked here and trained a lot of wrestlers," said Tulush.

"It's a great loss," he said, adding that Mongush "was very well-known here and a very good person."

A murder probe into the gruesome crime was opened after the suspect, a 23-year-old herdsman, told police where he had buried the body.

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Obama says US not spying on German emails

US President Barack Obama has arrived in Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Source: AAP

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has defended US internet and phone surveillance programs which sparked alarm in Europe, saying American spies were not "rifling" through the emails of German and French citizens.

Obama insisted the programs run by the super secret US eavesdropping service the National Security Agency (NSA) were legal and limited and were a vital tool in the fight against global terrorism.

"This is not a situation where we are rifling through, you know, the ordinary emails of German citizens or American citizens or French citizens or anyone else," Obama said after Wednesday's meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Obama argued that "lives have been saved" because of the use of the surveillance system, including in Germany, where memories of communist Stasi secret police eavesdropping still linger.

"We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted - not just in the United States, but in countries around the world, including Germany," he told a joint news conference with Merkel.

Obama said a balance must be struck between ensuring the security of citizens and protecting their privacy.

He offered a long explanation to Germans about the controversial programs, which he said involved sweeping up data on phone and internet traffic, but not delving into the specific content of the calls.

Only if there are leads related to terrorism or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, would US agents ask a special court to allow them to look deeper into the records, he said.

Merkel told reporters the internet was "new territory" for everyone and offered new possibilities to be abused by "enemies and opponents" but urged the need for "proportionality".

Germany values the security co-operation with the US, which had led to an important tip-off to Germany on an Islamist cell, she said.

But Merkel added: "I also made it clear ... that the theme of proportionality is always an important theme."

Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, said basic freedoms depended on people being able to feel safe "and therefore the question of balance, the question of proportionality, is something that we will further discuss with one another".

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McClelland farewell speech spares party

Retiring MP Robert McClelland admits he would have liked to have spent longer as attorney-general. Source: AAP

RETIRING Labor MP Robert McClelland admits he would have liked to have spent longer as federal attorney-general.

But in a farewell speech to parliament the long-serving politician, 55, stopped short of berating the party leadership which dumped him from the office, and subsequently the frontbench.

"Obviously if I had've had a little longer in the role of attorney-general - which I must say, I did want a little longer - there were several things I would have liked to have finished," Mr McClelland told the lower house during his valedictory address on Wednesday.

The Labor stalwart who has held the Sydney seat of Barton for 17 years announced in February he would not seek preselection for the September 14 election.

A supporter of former Labor leader Kevin Rudd, his allegiance proved costly in cabinet reshuffles: losing the attorney-general portfolio in December 2011, and in February 2012 being dumped from the cabinet.

Most recently Mr McClelland served as minister for emergency management, an area in which he warned Australia must step up to mitigate the impact of natural disasters.

While championing Australia's "world-class" efforts in national security, he said the country's emergency management systems needed urgent attention.

"The reality is Australians are going to suffer far greater loss and injury, and unfortunately loss of life, from natural disasters, than they are from a terrorist event and we have not given enough attention to that area," Mr McClelland said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard was absent for Mr McClelland's speech, but the third-generation parliamentarian was embraced by Mr Rudd as he signed off.

"I'm very proud to be a parliamentary representative of a party of such a tradition of bringing Australians together to act in the national interests and ... that tradition is inherently part of the tradition of Labor that we all have a responsibility to live up to."

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Mugabe seeks to delay Zimbabwe election

Zimbabwe's president has filed an urgent application to push back crucial elections by two weeks. Source: AAP

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe has filed an urgent application with the country's top court to push back crucial elections by two weeks, his justice minister says.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told AFP he had filed papers on Tuesday that sought "a postponement of the date for the harmonised elections from July 31, 2013 to August 14, 2013".

The announcement comes just days after southern African leaders pressed Mugabe to delay the polls to allow more time for democratic reforms.

In setting the original election date, Mugabe had said he was complying with the constitutional court's ruling to hold elections by July 31.

The elections will choose a successor to Zimbabwe's uncomfortable power-sharing government, which was forged four years ago as a path away from a decade of political violence.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvanigirai, a long-time Mugabe rival, has called for reforms - to free the media, depoliticise the security services and make sure the electoral roll is accurate - before the vote is held.

It was not immediately clear whether the court would grant the extension, or whether two more weeks will be enough to see Tsvangirai's demands met.

Leaders from the Southern African Development Community had on Saturday issued an unusual rebuke of Mugabe, asking that he go back to the court and seek a delay.

The SADC summit called on all parties to "create a conducive environment for the holding of peaceful, credible, free and fair elections".

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Embattled shipping operators form alliance

THREE leading shipping companies have announced an alliance across the Pacific and two other crucial routes in a strategy to face over-capacity and declining demand for transportation.

CMA CGM of France, Maersk Line of Denmark and Swiss MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company said that the new so-called P3 Network would initially use 255 ships on three trade lanes: Asia-Europe, Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic.

The venture would have capacity of 2.6 million standard-sized containers (TEU).

"Declining volume growth and over-capacity in recent years have underlined the need to improve operations and efficiency in the industry," the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.

In the scheme, each company will offer more shipping options to customers then they would individually "through better utilisation of vessel capacity," they added.

The companies intend to begin the program in the second quarter of 2014, but the go-ahead still requires regulatory approval as well as finalised contracts linking the companies.

Maersk Line, a unit of A P Maersk, will contribute 42 per cent of the joint shipping force. Italo-Swiss company MSC will pitch in 34 per cent and France's CMA CGM 24 per cent.

With world growth still yet to fully recover from the financial crisis, shippers are faced with declining traffic, lower volume demand and surging capacity as jumbo-sized ships come on line.

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G8 leaders agree not to pay ransoms

G8 leaders have agreed to stamp out the payment of ransoms for hostages kidnapped by "terrorists", British Prime Minister David Cameron's office says.

Downing Street said the world leaders meeting at a summit in Northern Ireland would also call on companies to follow their lead in refusing to pay for the release of abductees.

"Leaders agree to stamp out payment of ransoms to terrorists and call on companies to follow their lead," Cameron's office said on its Twitter feed.

The leaders of the world's most industrialised nations were focusing on counter-terrorism during talks on Tuesday, the second and final day of the summit.

British officials said Cameron had been keen to push the deal because funds raised by ransom payments were the main source of funding for terror groups, especially those in north Africa.

Britain was particularly focused on the subject following a hostage crisis at a gas plant in Algeria in January in which 37 foreign hostages were killed, among them six Britons.

Hostage-taking was worth $US70 million ($A74 million) to al-Qaeda-linked groups around the world over the last two years, British officials said.

Five of the G8 nations had been "shifting" on the issue while three did not pay ransoms as a matter of principle, British officials said.

In Britain, it is illegal to pay a ransom from the UK to anywhere else.

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Crew held as ship hits Philippine reef

EIGHTEEN Vietnamese crew members of a cargo ship have been detained after it ploughed into a coral reef in the central Philippines, the coastguard says.

The Unicorn Logger, a Panama-flagged freighter, ran aground at a protected marine sanctuary off the tiny island of Sambawan on Friday, coastguard spokesman Armand Balilo said.

"The crew are detained aboard their vessel as the damage to the reef is assessed," he told AFP on Tuesday.

The ship was carrying logs from Malaysia to Japan when it hit the reef, Balilo added.

A central Philippines coastguard spokesman, Ensign Jamaal Aceron, told AFP the ship will be towed for repairs to a shipyard in the central port of Cebu once the extent of the damage on the vessel is determined.

It was the latest in a series of maritime incidents at protected Philippine reefs this year.

A US Navy minesweeper ran aground at Tubbataha Reef, a World Heritage-listed marine sanctuary in the southern Philippines in January, leading to fines for reef damage and the dismantling of the ship.

A Chinese fishing vessel also ran aground at Tubbataha in April, causing even more damage.

The crew were arrested and charged for damaging the reef as well as for carrying endangered mammals.

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Scott Miller on new drug charge

Former Olympic swimmer Scott Miller arrives at the District Court, Downing Centre in Sydney, August 2009. Source: The Daily Telegraph

DISGRACED Olympian Scott Miller has been embroiled in a fresh drug scandal after he was nabbed by police allegedly in possession of several grams of ``ice'' and $17,000 in cash.

The dual swimming medallist was arrested at a home in Mascot, in Sydney's south, and charged with two counts of possessing goods suspected of being stolen and one count of possessing a prohibited drug.

The 38-year-old, from Edgecliff in Sydney's east, has been granted conditional bail to appear at Waverley Local Court on July 10.

The Mascot home where he was arrested had been under surveillance by detectives for some time, Channel 7 reported.

The charges come four years after Miller narrowly avoided jail for a 2009 conviction over the supply of ecstasy tablets and receiving stolen goods.

He pleaded guilty to five charges, including giving mate Mark Catchpole _ son of rugby union legend Ken Catchpole _ 12 ecstasy tablets as a birthday present and possessing a stolen pill press.

He claimed he never received any financial benefit from drugs, only using them with friends, and had the $18,000 pill press because it was ``collateral'' for a debt owed to him. District Court Judge Greg Woods ordered Miller to complete 100 hours community work and placed him on a two-year good behaviour bond.

Miller admitted turning to binge drinking and drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and ecstasy, to self-medicate depression following a series of injuries after the 1996 Atlanta Games ``strangled'' his career.

At the time, he said he wanted to rebuild his life by getting a job and said he might even return to the pool ``to do a bit of swimming''.

"Ever since 2004, when my career was over, I just didn't know what to do with my life, it was to numb the pain of being finished,'' Miller told a court.

"I started smoking (marijuana) and partying and it became part of my life.''

The year before, he was arrested with Catchpole after police raided a storage unit in Brookvale and found a stolen pill press and pill counter. While Catchpole was sentenced to five months' periodic detention for weapons charges relating to that investigation, charges against Miller were dropped because there was not enough evidence to prove he had used the items.

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Singapore, Indonesia tussle over smog

SMOG from forest fires on Indonesia's Sumatra island has eased in Singapore but the city-state continued to press its larger neighbour to solve the recurring problem.

Singapore's Pollutant Standards Index fell to a "moderate" rating of 82-88 before nightfall on Tuesday under an air-quality monitoring system that classifies any reading above 100 as "unhealthy".

The index had peaked at 155 on Monday night, Singapore's worst outbreak of cross-border air pollution since 2006.

Most commuters in Singapore walked in bright sunshine on Tuesday without covering their faces despite hazy skies and the lingering smell of burnt wood.

Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore's minister for environment and water resources, kept up the pressure on Indonesia despite the improved situation.

In a posting on his Facebook page, Balakrishnan said he had spoken with Indonesian Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya and "expressed our deep distress with the situation".

"This is the worst in seven years -- and has practically become a permanent fixture every year," Balakrishnan wrote.

He suggested that Indonesia name the companies responsible for the fires.

"We need to exert commercial pressure against companies causing the haze," Balakrishnan said.

On Monday, an Indonesian forestry ministry official, Hadi Daryanto, shifted some of the blame to Malaysia and Singapore, saying their palm oil companies that had invested in Indonesia were also responsible.

"We hope the governments of Malaysia and Singapore will tell their investors to adopt proper measures so we can solve this problem together."

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