UK police 'have amnesia' over hacking

BRITISH police knew of claims that journalists at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World hacked into a murdered schoolgirl's mobile phone but they failed to investigate, the police watchdog said.

Britain's Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said on Wednesday that Surrey Police in southeast England had done nothing about the allegations during their probe into the murder of 13-year-old Milly Dowler in 2002.

But the IPCC said it was unable to find out why nothing was done, because former senior officers at the force appeared to be suffering from "collective amnesia".

Revelations that the News of the World hacked into Dowler's voicemail messages, along with those of dozens of celebrities and public figures, sparked a huge public outcry that forced Murdoch to shut down the tabloid in 2011.

"Phone hacking was a crime and this should have been acted upon - if not in 2002, then later, once the News of the World's widespread use of phone hacking became a matter of public knowledge and concern," said IPCC deputy chair Deborah Glass.

"We have not been able to uncover any evidence, in documentation or witness statements, of why and by whom that decision was made," she added.

"Former senior officers, in particular, appear to have been afflicted by a form of collective amnesia in relation to the events of 2002."

The phone-hacking scandal sparked three police investigations and a judicial inquiry into press ethics.

Testimony at the inquiry, led by judge Brian Leveson, revealed a close relationship between police and staff at Murdoch's British newspaper wing, News International.

Dozens of people have been arrested under Scotland Yard's probes into phone-hacking, computer hacking and the selling of stories by public officials.

On Wednesday a former Surrey Police officer became the 62nd person to be arrested under the probe into corrupt payments, Operation Elveden.

Prime Minister David Cameron's ex-media chief Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor, is among those who have been charged in connection with the scandal, as is former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks.

Former nightclub bouncer Levi Bellfield was convicted of murdering Milly Dowler in 2011, nine years after she disappeared on her way home from school.

British prosecutors say that a senior editor at Rupert Murdoch's tabloid The Sun is being charged with conspiring to pay STG23,000 ($A34,375) in bribes in return for tips about the royal family.

Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said on Wednesday that The Sun's Chief Royal Correspondent Duncan Larcombe conspired with employees of Sandhurst - Britain's prestigious military academy - to secure royal gossip.

The statement does not go into detail but Princes William and Harry both trained at Sandhurst several years ago.

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Afghan quake kills seven, injures dozens

SEVEN people were killed and dozens injured when a 6.2 quake struck eastern Afghanistan, officials say.

Six people, including some children, died in Nangarhar province on Wednesday, and 75 people were injured, said provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.

One person was killed and one injured in neighbouring Kunar province and many homes were destroyed, said local government spokesman Wasefullah Wasef.

Strong tremors were felt in the capital Kabul and Islamabad in neighbouring Pakistan, the Pakistan meteorological office said.

The quake hit at 0925 GMT (1925 AEST) and was centred in southeastern Afghanistan at a depth of 70km.

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Pope appeals for release of Syrian bishops

POPE Francis has called for the release of two Syrian bishops kidnapped by gunmen near Aleppo, after a Christian group appeared to retract its claim that the clerics had been freed.

Aleppo's Greek Orthodox Bishop Boulos Yaziji and Syriac Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim were kidnapped on Monday by armed men en route from the Turkish border.

Speaking to an audience of about 100,000 at the Vatican, Francis said on Wednesday there were "contradictory reports" about the fate of the bishops and asked that "they be returned quickly to their communities".

On Tuesday, the "Oeuvre d'Orient" Christian association announced that the bishops had been released, but on Wednesday it backed away from the claim.

"Yesterday evening we received information from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate questioning the release of the two bishops," said Catherine Baumont, spokeswoman for the group, which works to help Middle Eastern Christians.

"Unfortunately no tangible proof of the release has been obtained. The situation remains unclear, and we still don't know who took them," said Baumont.

And a source in Aleppo's Greek Orthodox archdiocese said it had no news on the fate of the bishops.

"We have no new information," said Ghassan Ward, a priest at the archdiocese.

"We can say that (as far as we know) they haven't been freed."

Ward said there had been "no contact with them," adding that "efforts are continuing" to secure their release.

"We are very worried."

The two men were travelling from the Turkish border when armed men intercepted the car they were in, forcing them out of the vehicle, Syrian state media and church sources reported.

The kidnappers were believed to be Chechen fighters, who stopped the car in an area outside of Aleppo, the church sources said.

"The news which we have received is that an armed group... (of) Chechens stopped the car and kidnapped the two bishops while the driver was killed," an official from the Syriac Orthodox diocese said in a statement posted online.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said on Wednesday that the bishops had been kidnapped "in the region west of Aleppo, where a brigade of fighters from Dagestan is active".

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Leftist Letta nominated to be Italy PM

ENRICO Letta, who will be Italy's next prime minister, is the Europhile deputy leader of the leftist Democratic Party.

He was nominated on Wednesday and at 46 years of age already has extensive government experience.

His age counted in his favour amid calls for generational change, as did his "post-ideological" image which makes him the obvious leader of a grand coalition government.

Despite his age, Letta has already served in four governments, including stints as minister for Europe and for trade and industry. He had already served in centre-left cabinets in the late 1990s.

Another possible asset is the fact that his uncle is Gianni Letta, a shadowy figure who has been Silvio Berlusconi's right-hand man for years.

This didn't prevent him from being one of Berlusconi's strongest critics, although the scandal-tainted billionaire tycoon will now be an important power behind the throne.

Letta was born in Pisa on August 20, 1966 and studied political sciences and international law at a time when he was an active member of the Christian Democratic party. The party eventually collapsed in a storm of corruption scandals.

Letta headed up the European youth wing of the centre-right Christian Democrats between 1991 and 1995, after which he worked at the finance ministry on Italy's bid to adopt the euro before joining Massimo D'Alema's leftist government in 1998.

The ambitious Letta later served under two other prime ministers - Giuliano Amato and Romano Prodi in a period in which an often divided centre-left alternated its frequently brief terms in office with successive Berlusconi governments.

He has said his heroes are Polish anti-communist leader Lech Walesa and South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.

Letta has also admitted to a fondness for popular Italian comic "Dylan Dog" -- the adventures of a womanising sleuth specialising in the paranormal.

"I wanted to be like him," he told one interviewer.

Letta is also a big fan of British rock band Dire Straits and Italian pop-rockers Nomadi.

He has been a leading member of the national committee of the Democratic Party since it was formed in 2007 as a combination between the remnants of the historic Italian Communist Party and a series of small centrist parties.

Letta is the author of books including "Building a Cathedral: Why Italy Should Go Back to Thinking Big" and "Is Europe Over?" in which he called for a "new project" for Europe to lift it out of a period of crisis on many levels.

He has been married twice and has three children.

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87 dead in Bangladesh building collapse

AN eight-story building has collapsed near Bangladesh's capital, killing at least 87 people and trapping many more.

The building in the Dhaka suburb of Savar housed several garment factories but is now a jumbled mess of shattered concrete and bricks, officials said.

Tens of thousands of people gathered at the site, some of them weeping survivors, some searching for family members.

Firefighters and soldiers using drilling machines and cranes worked together with local volunteers in the search for other survivors.

Zahidur Rahman, director of public relations at Enam Medical College and Hospital, said by Wednesday evening 87 people had been confirmed dead.

Another 600 survivors had been rescued, Brigidier General Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said.

Reports indicated the death toll could rise.

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NATO condemns N Korea threats

NATO has condemned North Korea's war threats, calling on it to abandon atomic weapons. Source: AAP

NATO foreign ministers condemned North Korea's war threats, calling on it to abandon atomic weapons just as Pyongyang insisted it be treated as a nuclear-armed state on equal terms with long-time foe the United States.

"North Korea's provocative actions are in direct violation of UN Security Council resolutions and seriously undermine regional stability," the ministers said in a statement as they met at NATO HQ in Brussels.

They also "jeopardise the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and threaten international peace and security," it added.

The 28 ministers called on North Korea to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner; and engage in credible and authentic talks on denuclearisation."

North Korea's bellicose rhetoric of the past few months, including threats of nuclear war against the United States, have stoked tensions in the region.

The threats and bluster have been seen as an effort to force Washington, the close ally of South Korea, into talks on normalising relations.

However, North Korea earlier on Tuesday renewed its demand that it be treated as a nuclear power, saying it was a pre-requisite for any dialogue with the United States.

A commentary in the North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper rejected as "totally unacceptable" a US demand that North Korea commit to abandoning its nuclear weapons and missile program before any talks can begin.

Any meeting at the negotiating table must be "between nuclear weapons states," it said.

Washington has made it clear that it will never formally accept the North, which carried out its third nuclear test in February, as a nuclear power.

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Security tight ahead of France gay vote

France's parliament will finally approve a bill to legalise gay marriage after months of protests. Source: AAP

PARIS police have stepped up security for the city's gay community ahead of a final parliamentary vote on Tuesday on a bill that will make France the 14th country to legalise same-sex marriage.

After months of acrimonious debate and hundreds of street protests that have occasionally spilled over into violence, a reform that has split the country was expected to be comfortably approved by the Socialist-dominated National Assembly around 1500 GMT (0100 AEST).

Deputies voted 329-229 in favour of the bill on its first reading in February and a similar outcome is expected in the ballot on the second and final reading.

Although the protests against gay marriage, some of them attended by hundreds of thousands, have generally been peaceful, the debate has taken on a nastier edge in recent weeks.

Some politicians have received personal threats, a handful of demonstrations have ended in violence amid claims of infiltration by extreme-right activists, and there was even a scuffle in parliament as the debate concluded in the wee small hours of Friday.

These tensions have been linked to a spike in hate crimes against the gay community that have included attacks on bars and two serious assaults in Paris, prompting the police to take preventive measures in case of a further backlash.

Bernard Boucault, the city's prefect of police, said the assaults, which took place on the night of April 6-7, had been almost certainly the result of homophobia.

"Everything possible is being done to identify those responsible and bring them to justice," Boucault said.

"In order to ensure there is no repeat, we are reinforcing our presence in certain areas of the city at certain times."

Gay rights activists are planning a celebratory rally to coincide with the parliamentary vote and opponents will stage protests in Paris and across the country.

That will not however be the final chapter in a debate that has exposed profound fault lines in French society.

The bill, which will also accord gay and lesbian couples the right to adopt children, will only become law when it is signed by President Francois Hollande and published in the Official Journal.

Opposition parties are hoping to delay that step by challenging the measure through France's constitutional council, but the government is confident that will be dismissed.

"We have ensured that there is no legal weakness," said Family Minister Dominique Bertinotti.

"The constitutional council is sovereign but the government is serene. We're confident."

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Clashes in north Iraq leave 40 dead

DEADLY fighting has hit Kirkuk province in north Iraq, with 27 people killed in clashes between protesters and security forces and 13 gunmen dying in subsequent revenge attacks on the army.

The clashes mark the deadliest eruption of violence linked to protests in Sunni areas that began more than four months ago.

The protesters have been demanding the resignation of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and railing against the alleged targeting of their community by the authorities.

Tuesday's violence broke out around 5am when security forces entered an open area near Hawijah, west of Kirkuk province's capital, where demonstrations have been held since January, said senior army officers.

Twenty-seven people have been killed and around 70 wounded, they said.

But accounts differed as to the spark for the bloodletting.

A brigadier general from the Iraqi army division responsible for the area said the operation was aimed at Sunni militants from a group known as the Naqshbandiya Army, and that security forces only opened fire after they were fired upon.

A second officer said that 34 Kalashnikov assault rifles and four PKM machine guns were recovered at the scene.

Two soldiers were killed and seven wounded in the operation, while the remainder of the casualties were a combination of protesters and militants, the officers said.

However, protesters insisted the army had provoked the clashes.

Security forces "invaded our sit-in today, burned the tents and opened fire indiscriminately and killed and wounded dozens of protesters," Abdulmalik al-Juburi, a leader of the Hawijah sit-in, told AFP.

"We only have four rifles to protect the sit-in, and there are no wanted people among us," Juburi said.

The dawn violence sparked revenge attacks.

Thirteen gunmen were killed in attacks on checkpoints in the Al-Rashad and Al-Riyadh areas of Kirkuk province, the army officers said.

"There have been fierce clashes which led to the killing of 13 revolutionaries against the policy of the government," Juburi said.

"When they heard the news about the killed and wounded in the sit-in, villagers in Kirkuk cut the roads and attacked checkpoints and military headquarters and took control of some of the checkpoints for a short time," he said.

Hassan Toran, leader of the provincial council of Kirkuk, where Hawijah is located, said the council condemned "the government forces breaking in to the sit-in and using extreme force, which led to killing and wounding dozens."

"We, as a provincial council, already warned and called for calm," Toran added.

"What happened today makes us ask the United Nations to intervene," he said.

A curfew has been imposed on Hawijah and neighbouring areas.

The violence came just hours after United Nations envoy Martin Kobler called for restraint on both sides in Hawijah, where tensions have been increasing.

"I encourage the Iraqi security forces to exercise the utmost self-restraint in maintaining law and order and the demonstrators to continue to preserve the peaceful character of the demonstrations," Kobler said in a statement.

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Australian population hits 23m, ABS says

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' population clock is expected to reach 23 million on Tuesday. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA is now home to 23 million people, according to an estimate by the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS), with the milestone prompting discussion about population size.

The ABS's population clock is based on a projected increase of one person every one minute and 23 seconds, taking into account birth and death rates, and the net gain from migration.

Australia hit the 23 million mark just before 10pm (AEST) on Tuesday according to the clock, with the last million added from September 2009.

With the milestone looming, earlier in the day Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she thought the figure was relatively low.

In terms of the world's most populous nations, Australia is ranked in the mid-50s.

"By the standards of the world we are a relatively low-population country, but we have the 12th strongest economy in the world - now that's an achievement," Ms Gillard told reporters in Sydney.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the government wasn't interested in setting "arbitrary targets", but rather the distribution and composition of the nation's people.

"We are interested in where the population is and the type of groups within our population," he told reporters on Tuesday.

"There are many communities where there aren't sufficient jobs and equally there are many communities where there are more jobs than people to fill them."

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said the government was looking at "where and how" people live.

"We need to think about the shape of our cities, whether jobs are close to housing," she said.

According to the ABS, the nation's population passed five million in 1919, 10 million in 1960, 15 million in 1983 and 20 million in the December quarter of 2003.

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NSW police officer caught drink driving

A NSW police officer has been suspended after he was caught drink driving, police say. Source: AAP

A NSW police officer has been suspended after he was caught drink driving, police say.

The officer, 48, was arrested on Sunday after he returned a high range reading of 0.173 during a breath-test at Tweed Heads, police said.

Police suspended the man's drivers licence and he will appear in Tweed Heads Local Court for driving with a high-range prescribed concentration of alcohol and other driving offences.

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