The original Wiggles woo Carols crowd

THOUSANDS of arms and legs waved and flailed at Sydney's Carols in the Domain, as the original members of The Wiggles celebrated their last carols bonanza.

More than 50,000 people packed into the Domain on Saturday, as the popular annual event ushered in the Christmas cheer with The Ten Tenor's rendition of O Come All Ye Faithful at 8.30pm (AEDT).

But the cheers really kicked off when Australia's most loved children's music group said their final goodbye to the event.

"Three of the members are hanging up their skivvies so tonight is their very last television performance before handing over to new band members," the Carols co-host Natalie Barr said.

"So this is it Australia, the end of an era," Matt White said.

The crowd jumped to their feet, shooting out arms and legs in unison with the original Red, Yellow, Red, Purple and Blue wiggles as they sang and danced to Fruit salad, Hot Potato and Jingle Bells.

"The Wiggles have been performing at Carols in the Domain for 20 years ... and we have always had such a wonderful time," Red Wiggle Murray Cook said, adding that next year will see the three new Wiggles perform.

Earlier in the evening candles began waving as Troy Cassar-Daley sung Have Yourself a Merry Christmas - later coming back with guitar in tow to sing Jingle Bells Rock.

Georgie Parker and Jay Laga'aia teamed up for the Christmas favourite Here Comes Santa Claus and Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer, eliciting a big cheer from the crowd.

Meanwhile The X-Factor favourites The Collective channelled the 1980s, with a rendition of the Wham! classic Last Christmas, prompting some more screams from the audience.

"Slightly popular. The Twittersphere just exploded, The Collective is in town," White quipped.

The X-Factor winner Samantha Jade, backed by a chorus, also wooed the crowd with Away in a Manger.

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Fire bans, warnings as WA set to scorch

A MID-40C scorcher will see a total fire ban for around 2600 residents on the northern WA coast, while 6000 people in the state's Pilbara region are bracing for severe fire danger.

The Shire of Exmouth, in the coastal region of Gascoyne about 1000km north of Perth, has been placed on a total fire ban on Sunday by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES).

All open air fires are banned, and hot work such as metal welding and grinding is not allowed without an exemption. The DFES has warned that those who flout the ban face fines of up $25,000 and/or up to 12 months in jail.

Residents in the inner-Pilbara's Shire of Ashburton face hot, dry, windy conditions that could see a potential bush or grass fire take hold, DFES said, announcing a severe fire warning.

The area faces overnight temperature lows in the mid to high 20Cs before daytime maximums expected in the low to mid 40Cs, with the searing weather tipped to continue until Boxing Day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).

Motorists are being urged to avoid driving near the abandoned town site of Wittenoom, where a fire southwest of the area - despite posing no danger - has seen roads closed in the area due to thick smoke.

Several non-threatening fires are also burning on either side of the North West Coastal Highway in the Shire of Ashburton, causing a potential smoke hazard for motorists, DFES said in a statement.

The department has urged residents in affected areas to have bushfire plans and survival kits on standby, and to tune in to local radio and other media for updates.

"Do not wait for a warning before you act. If you see flames call triple zero," the DFES said.

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Syria's chemical weapons safe, Russia says

RUSSIA'S foreign minister says the Syrian government has consolidated its chemical weapons in one or two locations amid a rebel onslaught.

Sergey Lavrov says Russia, which has military advisers training Syria's military, has kept close watch over its chemical arsenal. He says the Syrian government has moved them from many arsenals to just "one or two centres" to properly safeguard them.

US intelligence says the regime may be readying chemical weapons and could be desperate enough to use them. Both Israel and the US have also expressed concerns they could fall into militant hands if the regime crumbles.

Lavrov also told reporters on a flight from an EU summit late on Friday that countries in the region had asked Russia to convey an offer of safe passage to President Bashar al-Assad.

Meanwhile Rebels have threatened to storm two predominantly Christian towns in central Syria, saying regime forces are using them to attack nearby areas.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday that the rebels issued an ultimatum to the towns of Mahrada and Sqailbiyeh in the province of Hama.

A video released by rebels showed Rashid Abul-Fidaa, the Hama commander of the Ansar Brigade, calling on residents to "evict Assad's gangs" or be attacked. He was referring to Assad's forces in the area.

Christians, who make up about 10 per cent of Syria's population, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence sweeping the country of 22 million people.

They are fearful that Syria will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups.

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Two charged over $580,000 cigarette haul

CIGARETTES worth more than half a million dollars have been seized and two men charged following a routine police truck stop in Victoria's north, police say.

Officers pulled over a light truck north-bound on the Hume Freeway at Seymour, about 100km north of Melbourne, about 11.30am (AEDT) on Saturday.

After speaking with the driver, a search of the truck revealed three pallets of cigarettes valued at around $580,000, police said.

Two NSW men, aged 28 and 35, have been charged with two counts each of possessing proceeds of crime and one count each of handling stolen goods.

Both were bailed and will appear at Seymour Magistrates Court on March 21.

Police say they'll work with customs officials to further investigate the circumstances surrounding the find.

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List unveils top English tongue-twisters

"PHENOMENON", "remuneration" and "statistics" have topped a list of the most commonly mispronounced English words.

Speakers also have a problem getting their tongue around "ethnicity", "hereditary" and "particularly", according to the UK body charged with recording public utterances.

The British Institute Of Verbatim Reporters (BIVR) is the UK's leading organisation for professionals involved in taking down speech at court and tribunal hearings.

A poll of its members found the 10 words that Britons consistently find the most challenging to pronounce.

Completing the list are "conjugal", "specific", "processes" and "development".

Leah Willersdorf, of the BIVR, said: "We work with many different types of professionals and hear all kinds of voices during our work.

"However, when it comes to the English language it always seems to be the same few words that verbally trip people up, with the speaker having to repeat the word in order to get it right, or just abandoning their attempts and moving on."

BIVR members were quizzed by the team behind the popular word game Scrabble.

According to the words buffs, one in 10 players admit to being reluctant to producing words that they cannot pronounce.

Scrabble is a favourite with British families over the festive period, with an estimated 11 million going head to head on Boxing Day, according to its makers.

University of York sociolinguistics expert Paul Kerswill said the English language has evolved to compensate for tricky pronunciations but some words remain a challenge.

"People always find a way of simplifying words that they find difficult to get their tongues round, so that an everyday word like 'handbag' sounds like 'hambag'," Professor Kerswill said.

"Our forebears simplified 'waistcoat' to 'weskit' - but we've turned our backs on that.

"We certainly don't pronounce Worcester and Gloucester the way they are spelt any more. And 'York' used to have three syllables, not one.

"And most people talk about 'Febry' and 'Wensday'."

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Obama vows action after online petition

US President Barack Obama has vowed to take action to stop gun violence in response to online petitions signed by more than 400,000 people after last week's primary school massacre.

"In the days since the heartbreaking tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, hundreds of thousands of you, from all 50 states, signed petitions asking us to take serious steps to address the epidemic of gun violence in this country," Obama said in an online video on Friday. "We hear you."

Obama has called on Congress to pass legislation banning military-style assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition clips. It would would also close loopholes that allow people to purchase guns without background checks.

He has also appointed Vice President Joe Biden to head a task force to explore ways to prevent mass shootings, including by improving access to mental health care, and addressing depictions of violence in popular culture.

"I will do everything in my power as president to advance these efforts, because if there's even one thing we can do as a country to protect our children, we have a responsibility to try," Obama said in the video.

"But as I said earlier this week I can't do it alone. I need your help."

Obama called on ordinary citizens, law enforcement officials and gun owners to campaign publicly and petition Congress in support of his reforms.

Last Friday's massacre of 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School - the latest in a series of mass shootings over the past two years - has galvanised support for reforms aimed at stemming gun violence.

More than 400,000 people have signed "We the People" petitions on the White House's website calling for action on gun violence, making it one of the most popular issues since the launch of the site, a White House official said.

One such petition set the record for being the fastest ever to reach 25,000 signatures, the official said.

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Pope makes new anti-gay marriage stance

THE Pope has taken his opposition to gay marriage to new heights with a strong denunciation of how people are manipulating their sex and gender to alter their God-given nature.

Benedict made the comments on Friday in his annual Christmas speech to the Vatican bureaucracy - one of his most important speeches of the year and one he dedicated this year to promoting family values.

In it, Benedict quoted the chief rabbi of France in saying the campaign for granting gays the right to marry was an "attack" on the traditional family made up of a father, mother and children.

Benedict also issued a denunciation of gay marriage in his recently released annual peace message, saying gay marriage, like abortion and euthanasia, was a threat to world peace.

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Dutch impound Steve Jobs superyacht

STEVE Jobs' Dutch-built superyacht has been impounded in Amsterdam because of a dispute between the late Apple founder's estate and designer Philippe Starck over an unpaid bill.

"The yacht has been impounded," Rotterdam-based lawyer Roelant Klaassen, who represents French designer Starck's Ubik company said on Friday.

"There is some unfinished business, namely two invoices which were issued by Ubik last summer after Mr Jobs died," he said.

Amsterdam court bailiffs seized the 70-metre long yacht following a request from Starck's lawyer.

The Venus reportedly cost over 100 million euros ($126 million) to build and was only unveiled in October, just over a year after Jobs died.

Jobs' estate says Starck should be paid a percentage of the overall cost of the project, which took over five years to complete, while Starck says he should be paid a fixed nine million euros for his contribution, Mr Klaassen said.

Mr Klaassen said he was in contact with a Dutch lawyer representing the Jobs estate, Gerard Moussault.

"Hopefully we will come to an interim agreement with regard to security," Mr Klaassen said.

Mr Moussault declined to comment on the matter.

Jobs' family, including widow Laurene Powell Jobs and their three children Reed, Erin and Eve, was supposed to take charge of the yacht in the United States.

Mr Klaassen said he had seen documents that show Jobs and Starck were "very close in the period that the design was made and the building proceeded".

"That's one of the reasons there was no formal agreement on the job," he said.

"The most important thing for everyone is that the vessel can sail at a certain moment and hopefully funds will be paid into the account of the lawyers of the estate which can then be used as security," Mr Klaassen said.

"Apparently the vessel will be loaded on another vessel to be shipped to the States, I think to California."

The aluminium-hulled yacht was built by Royal De Vries shipbuilder's in Aalsmeer, just south of Amsterdam, with interiors designed by Starck.

The bridge features a control panel made up of an array of seven iMac computers.

Starck said last year that he was working on the yacht, which was mentioned in Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, who died on October 5, 2011. He said it was "sleek and minimalist", with teak decks.

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Russia cuts Khodorkovsky's jail term

A RUSSIAN court has reduced the sentence of jailed Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky from 13 to 11 years, setting his release for 2014.

The Moscow City Court on Thursday decided to cut the prison term served by the Yukos oil company founder and his co-defendant Platon Lebedev by two years due to changes in the criminal legislation that affect the charges against them.

"This way Mikhail Khodorkovsky is to be freed in October 2014, and Platon Lebedev in July 2014," said a statement on Khodorkovsky's media site.

The reduction applies to the charge of money laundering, court spokeswoman Anna Usacheva was quoted by news agencies as saying.

Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were convicted of embezzlement and money laundering in their second trial in late 2010.

They had already been serving time for an earlier conviction of fraud and tax evasion.

Khodorkovsky's lawyers reacted angrily to the decision.

They had appealed to the court for the release of the two defendants, arguing that under new legislation, they have already served their sentences in full.

"What can be our reaction to continuing lawlessness and reprisals? Of course, it is negative," one of the lawyers, Vadim Klyuvgant, said after the decision.

"We will continue to fight, and of course we will appeal."

Last month, a district court ruled that there should be a more significant reduction in Lebedev's sentence to allow for his release in July 2013 but the decision was overruled by a regional judge.

Khodorkovsky was Russia's richest man and a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin when he was first arrested in 2003. Since then his company Yukos has been dissolved. Supporters say his prosecution was punishment for daring to finance political opposition in Russia.

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Nigeria gunmen kidnap French national

A GROUP of 30 gunmen who stormed a residence in northern Nigeria where expatriate workers were staying kidnapped a French citizen after killing two people, police say.

"I can confirm the abduction of a French national," the Katsina state police chief, Abdullahi Magaji, said on Thursday of the incident late on Wednesday.

"The kidnappers numbering about 30 stormed the residence where the engineers of (French company) Vergnet were staying," he said, adding that a security guard and a neighbour were shot dead in the attack.

Vergnet, a company that specialises in alternative energy according to its website, was working on a wind power project in Katsina.

Abdullahi said the attack happened at a village called Rimmi, about 25 kilometres from the state capital, Katsina city.

"The gunmen later threw an explosive device into the police station on their way out the town to distract the police from pursuing them," he added.

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WHO head warns diseases set to rise

THE head of the World Health Organisation says infectious diseases will spread more easily in the future due to globalisation, changing lifestyles and rising population densities.

"The future looks very bright for microbes, not so good for humanity," Margaret Chan told a luncheon on Thursday in her hometown Hong Kong, the site of a major outbreak of the SARS virus in 2003 that killed almost 300 people in the city.

Higher population density, industrialisation of food production and the increase in international travel have provided many opportunities for communicable diseases to spread, she said.

"Given this unstable and unpredictable situation, only one generalisation is possible - there will definitely be more new diseases capable of causing outbreaks in humans," Chan said at the event organised by the Asia Society.

But the WHO head said not all new diseases will be as "devastating" as the outbreak of SARS that killed more than 800 people worldwide and the H1N1 epidemic that caused at least 17,000 deaths.

Chan said one reason that infectious diseases have been on the rise in the region and China was due to the habit of eating the meat of exotic animals, as most new diseases are spread from animals to humans.

"Constant mutation and adaptation are survival mechanisms of the microbial world, these organisms are well equipped to take advantage of every opportunity to jump the species barrier," she said.

The WHO issued a global alert in September for a SARS-like coronavirus which killed two people in Qatar, one in Saudi Arabia and two in Jordan.

The WHO says the coronavirus detected in the Middle East this year was unrelated to SARS and is a novel form of the germ.

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Thailand extradites of Italian mafia boss

A THAI court has ordered the extradition of a former banker and Italian mafia boss accused of laundering money for two Sicilian godfathers.

Vito Roberto Palazzolo, who was arrested in Thailand in March after investigators tracked him down through Facebook, is considered to a leading member of the Cosa Nostra Sicilian mafia.

"The court ruled that Palazzolo should be extradited," an official at the Bangkok Criminal Court said.

"The judge ruled his case was not political as it's organised crime and money laundering," she said.

Under Thai law, the 65-year-old is entitled to file an appeal within 30 days, but his lawyer in Italy suggested he was unlikely to oppose the ruling.

"Palazzolo does not intend to appeal and his return to Italy will probably be voluntary," said Baldassare Lauria.

"This is not 100-per cent sure yet but we are speaking to the Italian government and judges. My client wants to speak to prosecutors to clear things up. From his time as a banker in Switzerland, he can shed light on many mysteries and on his ties with institutions," Mr Lauria added.

Palazzolo previously worked as a banker in Switzerland and was convicted in the 1980s of laundering mafia revenues from drug trafficking between Asia and Europe and the United States in an operation named the "Pizza Connection".

He served three years in prison for the crime. A few years after his release, the lead prosecutor in the case was assassinated with a roadside bomb that also killed his wife and three bodyguards.

Palazzolo is accused of being the "treasurer" for the last two godfathers of the Sicilian mafia who are now in jail - Bernardo Provenzano and Toto Riina, who imposed a reign of terror in the 1980s and 1990s.

He was sentenced in absentia by an Italian court in 2009 to nine years in jail for association with the mafia, and had been living in South Africa under the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko before travelling to Thailand.

In South Africa - which declined to extradite him - Palazzolo was seen as a major businessman with interests in mineral water, security and ostrich farming.

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Malaysia provides refuge for 'Rohingyas'

MALAYSIA has provided refuge to 40 shipwreck survivors believed to be refugees from Myanmar's conflict-wracked Rakhine state, a Malaysian maritime official says.

The refugees arrived late on Tuesday in the southern state of Johor after they were picked up by a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency vessel from a Vietnamese cargo ship off Singapore, the official said.

The 40 refugees were rescued by the cargo ship from a boat believed to be carrying 250 people that sank December 5 in the Bay of Bengal.

Many of those on board were still missing.

The official, who requested anonymity, said the refugees were believed to be from Myanmar's Rohingya minority.

All the refugees appeared to be in good health and were undergoing medical examinations, he said.

They were given temporary refuge while they are processed, he said.

Malaysia hosts about 24,000 refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state, which has seen clashes between Muslim Rohingya and majority Buddhists.

At least 89 people were killed in the violence in October, and more than 5300 houses and religious buildings were burned or destroyed, according to UN figures.

More than 110,000 people have been forced from their homes since the violence first flared in June.

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French judges keep Strauss-Kahn charges

French judges have decided not to drop aggravated pimping charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Source: AAP

FRENCH judges have decided not to drop aggravated pimping charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

His lawyer says the former International Monetary Fund chief will appeal.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have argued the investigating judges in the case are biased.

The case revolves around a suspected luxury prostitution ring in northern France.

A court in the French city of Douai decided on Wednesday to retain the preliminary charges.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have said he attended "libertine" gatherings but didn't know some women present were paid.

The case is one part of an intercontinental legal saga that exposed Strauss-Kahn's active sex life and buried his French presidential ambitions.

Strauss-Kahn reached a settlement in the US last week with a hotel maid who accused of him of trying to rape her in May 2011.

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High turnout in S Korea presidential vote

HUGE crowds have voted in a tight presidential race pitting the son of North Korean refugees against the conservative daughter of an assassinated dictator, who both favour greater engagement with Pyongyang.

Despite freezing temperatures that hovered around -10 degrees Celsius, turnout was higher than in past elections.

South Koreans stood in long lines, wrapped in mufflers and parkas.

Seoul's election watchdog said turnout was about 59 per cent on Wednesday afternoon, which is 11 percentage points higher than five years ago, when current conservative President Lee Myung-bak won a landslide victory.

It is also five percentage points higher than a decade ago, when Moon's protege and former boss, liberal Roh Moo-hyun, won.

Exit polls give a tiny edge to conservative Park Geun-Hye, daughter of late dictator Park Chung-Hee, in her bid to be the country's first woman leader.

As polling booths closed at 6pm (2000 AEDT), a joint exit poll by three TV stations gave Park 50.1 per cent of the vote, with 48.9 per cent for her liberal rival Moon Jae-In.

The lead of 1.2 per cent was inside the margin of error of plus or minus 0.8 per cent.

The eventual occupant of the presidential Blue House will have to deal with a belligerent North Korea, a slowing economy and soaring welfare costs in one of the world's most rapidly ageing societies.

At the headquarters of Park's ruling New Frontier Party, party members jumped up and cheered as the exit polls were flashed on TV monitors, but there was no concession or claim of victory by either side.

"We're pleased," said Kwon Young-Se, one of Park's top campaign staff.

"Exit polls are still preliminary results, so we will watch with a humble mind until all the votes are counted."

Optimistic Park supporters gathered outside her residence south of Seoul, cheering and waving the South Korean flag.

"The polls showed we were slightly behind, but we still see a ray of hope because it's within the margin of error," said Jin Sung-Mee, spokeswoman for Moon's main opposition Democratic United Party.

Park, 60, was looking to make history not just as the first female president of a still male-dominated country, but also the first to be related to a former leader.

Her father Park Chung-Hee remains one of the country's most polarising figures - admired for dragging the country out of poverty and reviled for his ruthless suppression of dissent during 18 years of military rule.

He was shot dead by his spy chief in 1979.

Park's mother had been killed five years earlier by a pro-North Korea gunman aiming for her father.

Moon, the son of North Korean refugees and a former chief of staff to the late president Roh Moo-Hyun, is a former human rights lawyer who was once jailed for protesting against the Park regime.

While both candidates signalled a desire for greater engagement with Pyongyang, Park's approach was far more cautious than Moon's promise to resume aid without preconditions and seek an early summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

The never-married Park had promised a strong, parental style of leadership that would steer the country through the challenges of global economic troubles.

"Like a mother who dedicates her life to her family, I will become the president who takes care of the lives of each one of you," she said in her last televised news conference on Tuesday.

A female president would be a big change for a country that the World Economic Forum recently ranked 108th out of 135 countries in terms of gender equality.

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Medical teams in Iraq to treat president

FOREIGN medical experts have rushed to Baghdad to assist Iraqi doctors treating ailing President Jalal Talabani, whose condition is said to be improving after he suffered a stroke.

Talabani, a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority, was taken to the hospital late Monday and doctors worked to stabilise him into the following day.

His illness raises new concerns about Iraq's stability, which is being tested anew by a recent spike in tensions between the central government and the Kurds.

Talabani's doctors have not formally said the 79-year-old statesman suffered a stroke, though several other government officials have confirmed that is the case.

Deputy Health Minister Issam Namiq said medical teams from Iran and Germany had arrived to assist with the treatment, with additional experts from Britain on their way.

He told reporters the president is getting better, though he offered no details about the severity of the illness.

"His condition is stable. And I underline here that there is an improvement in his condition compared with yesterday," he said.

Neighbouring Turkey has offered to send an air ambulance to fly the president to a hospital abroad.

Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman also described Talabani's condition as improving, saying he is "in a better situation than yesterday."

Doctors are considering whether to send Talabani abroad for treatment but no decision has been made, Namiq said.

The US Embassy in Baghdad expressed hopes for a speedy recovery. Word of Talabani's illness had trickled out on Tuesday, which marked the one-year anniversary of the end of the US-led war in Iraq.

Talabani's official powers are limited but he is seen as a rare unifying figure able to rise above the ethnic and sectarian rifts that still divide the country.

Iraq's parliament has the authority to choose a new president should Talabani's office become vacant.

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Blasts, clashes rock camp in Damascus

PALESTINIAN refugees have fled as blasts and fierce clashes rocked their camp in Damascus, a day after President Bashar al-Assad's deputy gave a gloomy assessment of Syria's brutal conflict.

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, meanwhile, told Damascus she would increase contacts with the opposition inside Syria to provide the needy with assistance.

The Yarmouk refugee camp housing tens of thousands of Palestinians in southern Damascus saw intense battles during the night between rebels and pro-regime Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), activists said.

Explosions and clashes were heard two days after warplanes bombed the camp for the first time since the start of the 21-month-old conflict.

Sunday's air raid killed eight civilians and drew stiff criticism from the international community and Palestinian leaders.

An activist calling himself Abu al-Sukan said as many as 35 per cent of the people have fled for fear of more fighting and air strikes, while in the camp itself, conditions had gravely deteriorated.

"There is a huge humanitarian crisis in the camp. There are no hospitals, no firefighters and the roads are not safe," he said on Tuesday.

The mosques of the camp broadcast an army ultimatum giving the 150,000 residents until midday (1000 GMT) Tuesday to leave their homes, a camp resident told AFP over the phone.

Sukan said fighters of the rebel Free Syrian Army were braced for more clashes.

As the conflict raged, leaving at least 191 people dead on Monday, according to the Observatory, differences emerged at the top levels of power in Damascus with Vice President Faruq al-Sharaa airing views at odds with Assad.

Sharaa said there would be no outright winner in the conflict, which is estimated to have already killed more than 43,000 people.

"No opposition can end the battle militarily, just as the security forces and army cannot achieve a decisive conclusion," Sharaa told Lebanon's Al-Akhbar newspaper.

"(Assad) does not hide his desire to press on militarily until the final victory (and he believes that) after this, political dialogue will actually still be possible."

A Sunni Muslim, Sharaa has for decades served the Assad regime, but has rarely been seen in public since the Arab Spring-inspired uprising erupted in March 2011.

Valerie Amos, the UN humanitarian chief, said Monday she had asked Damascus to allow 10 more aid groups to work inside Syria and that she would increase contacts with the opposition to help those in need.

The Assad government accepted the request, according to Amos.

Reports said Moscow was sending a flotilla of warships to the Mediterranean, which according to military sources could be to evacuate thousands of Russians still in Syria in case the situation in the country worsens.

Russia, a strong ally of Assad, also said two of its nationals along with an Italian steel worker had been abducted in Syria.

Separately, US television journalist Richard Engel was freed after being kidnapped in Syria and held for five days, his employer NBC News said on Tuesday.

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Greece raises 1.3bn euros in debt sale

GREECE has raised 1.3 billion euros ($A1.64 billion) in a three-month treasury bill auction with demand to spare, returning to short-term debt sales after completing an EU-funded debt buy-back last week.

"During the auction of 1.0 billion euros of 13-week treasury bills conducted today, the total bids reached 1.73 billion and the amount finally accepted was 1.3 billion," the state debt management agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

The sale offered a yield of 4.11 per cent to lenders.

In the last three-month auction in November, the agency had raised 1.3 billion euros at an interest rate of 4.20 per cent.

Greece last week attracted offers of 31.9 billion euros in a bond buy-back designed to alleviate its enormous sovereign debt by some 20 billion euros.

The scheme was a condition for the unblocking of pending EU-IMF loans, which had been held back since June owing to reform delays and a protracted electoral campaign in Greece that raised doubts about the future of its fiscal overhaul.

Because of the delay in receiving the EU-IMF funds, Greece had been forced to make emergency one-month debt auctions in November and earlier this month.

Following the approval of European leaders last week, Greece is to receive 34.3 billion euros in scheduled bailout aid in December, and another 14.8 billion euros in the first quarter of next year.

The first seven billion was disbursed on Monday and another 27.3 billion is expected by Wednesday, a Greek official said on Tuesday.

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Five polio workers shot dead in Pakistan

GUNMEN on motorbikes have shot dead five female Pakistani polio vaccination workers, police say, highlighting resistance to the country's immunisation campaign.

Four were killed in three different incidents in the sprawling port city and the fifth in the northwestern city of Peshawar, on the second day of a nationwide three-day drive against the disease, which is endemic in Pakistan.

Sagheer Ahmed, the health minister for Sindh province, of which Karachi is capital, said on Tuesday he had ordered a halt to the anti-polio drive in the city in the wake of the shootings.

Senior Karachi police officer Shahid Hayat said another polio worker was shot dead in the city on Monday, but the circumstances of his death only became clear on Tuesday.

In Peshawar, which lies close to the restive tribal areas, a haven for militants and hotspot for polio, two attackers on a motorbike fired on two sisters working on vaccination, killing one, senior police official Javed Khan told AFP.

The incident took place in Mathra suburb of Peshawar which borders Mohmand tribal district, Khan said.

Hayat blamed "militants who issued a fatwa against polio vaccination in the past" for the Karachi killings.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where the highly infectious crippling disease remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.

But efforts to tackle polio have been hampered over the years by suspicion over vaccination drives.

The Taliban have banned immunisations in the northwest, condemning the campaign as a cover for espionage since a Pakistani doctor was jailed after helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination program.

Tuesday's killings in Karachi took place in parts of the city dominated by Pashtuns, Hayat said. Pashtuns are the dominant ethnic group in northwest Pakistan and have a sizeable migrant population in Karachi.

WHO, a partner in government efforts to eradicate the disease, suspended vaccination activities in part of Pakistan's largest city in July after a spate of bloody shootings.

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NBC newsman freed in Syria after five days

US television journalist Richard Engel has been freed after being kidnapped in Syria and held for five days, his employer, NBC News, says.

"After being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown group, NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and his production crew members have been freed unharmed," the network said in a statement early Tuesday.

"We are pleased to report they are safely out of the country," it said.

Engel, 39, is one of the most high-profile American journalists to report from Syria, where rebels have been fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad's regime in a civil war that has claimed some 43,000 lives according to activists.

NBC said Engel and other unnamed employees went missing shortly after crossing into Syria from Turkey on Thursday, and that it had not been able to contact them until it learned they had been freed on Monday.

The network said there was no claim of responsibility, no contact with the captors and no ransom paid.

Engels and his crew were hustled into the back of a truck and transported to an unknown location believed to be near the town of Ma'arrat Misrin, NBC said. They were blindfolded and bound but otherwise unharmed, it said.

When the captors tried to move them to another location late Monday, they ran into a checkpoint manned by Syrian rebels from the Ahrar al-Sham Brigade. A firefight broke out and two of the captors were killed, NBC said.

The other captors escaped, and Engel's crew was not harmed in the incident.

The reporters were able to cross back into Turkey Tuesday morning and were in good health, NBC said.

Syria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to report from.

The 21-month-long rebellion began as a series of Arab Spring-style protests against the Assad family's four-decade reign but has since escalated into a brutal civil war, with fierce battles and intensive shelling in major cities.

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Strong 6.1 quake off eastern Indonesia

AN earthquake of 6.1 magnitude has been detected off the eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi. There have been no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The US Geological Survey said the quake was centred 119 kilometres northeast of Luwuk, in Central Sulawesi province, at a depth of 18.5 kilometres. No tsunami warning was issued.

The largest archipelagic Indonesia is prone to earthquake because of its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

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China cracks down on doomsday rumours

CHINA has detained dozens of people, some of whom it terms doomsday cult members, as part of a nationwide crackdown on rumours about a supposed forthcoming apocalypse, state media say.

Authorities in five different areas have detained 52 people for spreading predictions of a December 21 "doomsday" linked to the ancient Mayan calendar, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.

The apocalypse predictions have received widespread coverage in China, thanks in part to the success of the Hollywood disaster film 2012, which was partly-inspired by the supposed Mayan prophecy.

Those detained include 34 people in the eastern province of Fujian, and two in the central city of Wuhan who handed out leaflets about the apocalypse at transport facilities, the report said.

"People have fabricated and spread rumours about the 'end of the world', caused trouble by tricking people out of money, and disturbed social order," the report cited police in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing as saying.

A Christian group known as "Almighty God", which state-run media has labelled an "evil cult" - the same description it applies to the banned Falun Gong sect - has also been targeted in the pre-doomsday crackdown, with reports of dozens of arrests last week.

Thirty-seven Almighty God members were detained in the northwestern province of Qinghai, the state-run Global Times daily said, adding that the group predicts three days of darkness will begin on December 21.

The group has called on its members to overthrow China's ruling Communist Party, which it refers to as "the big red dragon", and tells believers that a new era, presided over by a "female Jesus", has arrived.

"A big eye was found in the sun on December 9 in Beijing, and female Jesus manifested herself with her name. Great Tsunamis and earthquakes are about to happen around the world," the Global Times reported a text message sent by Almighty God members as saying.

The ruling communist party does not tolerate challenges to its authority and has brutally cracked down on religious groups including the Buddhist-inspired Falun Gong, which was banned in the late 1990s.

China has a long history of religiously-inspired anti-government movements, most notably the 19th century Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, led by a Christian convert who gathered hundreds of thousands of followers in an attempt to overthrow the emperor.

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Family of slain principal rue her courage

THE husband of the principal killed as she tried to stop a gunman from mowing down children at her US elementary school has told CNN he was angry at first that his wife put herself in danger.

Dawn Hochsprung was in a meeting on Friday morning when gunshots rang out in the hallway of Sandy Hook Elementary School, in picturesque Newtown, Connecticut.

The shooter ultimately slaughtered 20 young children and six teachers and staff, including Hochsprung as she lunged at him trying to stop the slaughter, before turning a gun on himself.

Hochsprung's husband, George, told CNN on Monday two of the teachers who were in the meeting with his wife told him what they remembered.

"There were gunshots. Somebody shot the window. Somebody came in, into the - not into the office, but into the building, the foyer of the building. And Dawn told us to go hide," George said the teachers told him.

Hochsprung "and at least one other teacher went out and actually tried to subdue the killer. I don't know where that comes from. Dawn was 5'2," he continued, sitting surrounded by his three daughters from a previous marriage and one of Dawn's two daughters from her previous marriage.

"Dawn put herself in jeopardy. And I have been angry about that. Angry. Until just now, when I met two women that she told to go under shelter while she actually confronted the gunman," George recounted.

"She could have avoided that. And she didn't. I knew she wouldn't. So, I'm not angry anymore. I'm not angry. I'm not angry at anyone. I'm not angry," he repeated as if hoping she would hear him, adding in a small voice, "I'm just very sad."

George said he never expected to outlive his wife, who was much younger than he was.

The surviving family members held hands and sobbed as they remembered their lives with Hochsprung.

Hochsprung's daughter, Erica, spoke about her mother's support.

"Every game, she was there. Every cheerleading stuff, she was there. Every dance competition. She was doing homework on the bleachers. But she was there. And she was my rock. My rock," she said.

Asked what she would say to her mother now, Erica forced out: "Come back. Just come back."

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France 'to blame' for Depardieu's tax exit

Gerard Depardieu will give up his French passport following criticism over his tax exile in Belgium. Source: AAP

BELGIUM'S foreign minister says France is solely to blame after its top actor, Gerard Depardieu, threatened to give up his passport following a move to seek tax exile in the neighbouring country.

Didier Reynders says his country must not be made a "scapegoat" for Depardieu's move, which the French prime minister suggested was an unpatriotic act.

"There have been no measures taken by Belgium to attract any French national," Reynders told RTL radio.

"There has been an evolution in the French tax system which may have had consequences."

"One must look at things for which citizens are leaving their own country, even if these are tax reasons," he added.

Reynders earlier said many Belgian sports celebrities had sought tax exile in Monaco and that Belgian authorities had accepted that.

He also noted that many Belgians shopped in France due to lower value added tax.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault - who called Depardieu "pathetic" for seeking tax exile in Belgium - the 63-year-old French star said he had been treated unfairly after paying millions of euros in taxes.

Depardieu has joined some of France's wealthiest business figures in Belgium following moves by President Francois Hollande's Socialist government to tax annual incomes above one million euros ($A1.26 million) at 75 per cent.

Belgium does not impose a wealth tax and has not had one since 1830. Its income and inheritance taxes are also lower.

In his letter, Depardieu, who has extensive business interests including wine estates and three Paris restaurants, accused the Socialists of driving France's most talented figures out of the country.

He said he had paid a total of 145 million euros into state coffers over 45 years of working and running businesses in France.

Ayrault's attack came after it emerged that Depardieu had taken up residence in Nechin, a tiny village just over the border in Belgium, which is a favoured spot for wealthy French nationals avoiding tax.

"I find it quite pathetic," Ayrault said. "Everyone loves him as an artist but paying your taxes is an act of solidarity and patriotism."

The affair was seized on by the right-wing UMP party of Hollande's predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, whose leader Jean-Francois Cope said the president - who famously said he did not "like the rich" - was destroying the country.

"What I regret above all is how the Socialist government is running the country into the ground," Cope said on Monday, denouncing the "tax bludgeoning which is hitting all French citizens."

"He is in the process of taking our country backwards."

France's richest man Bernard Arnault came under fire in September when it emerged that he had applied for Belgian citizenship.

Arnault, the boss of luxury conglomerate LVMH, denied he was seeking to become a tax exile, saying he wanted Belgian nationality "for personal reasons".

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US shooting shocks world leaders

WORLD leaders have expressed shock and horror after a gunman massacred 20 small children and six staff in the US state of Connecticut, one of the worst school shootings in history.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has sent Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy his "deepest condolences at the shocking murders," a statement said.

"The targeting of children is heinous and unthinkable," he added.

Pope Benedict XVI also sent a letter of condolence to the community, which was read aloud at a vigil in Newtown on 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.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he "was shocked and deeply saddened" by the incident."

"My thoughts are with the injured and those who have lost loved ones. It is heartbreaking to think of those who have had their children robbed from them at such a young age, when they had so much life ahead of them."

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II sent a message to President Barack Obama in which she said she was "deeply shocked and saddened" to hear of the shootings.

"The thoughts and prayers of everyone in the United Kingdom and throughout the Commonwealth are with the families and friends of those killed and with all those who have been affected."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the massacre had brought "indescribable grief to many families just before Christmas".

There were almost no non-fatal injuries, indicating that once targeted there was little chance of escape, and that the gunman, believed to be 20-year-old Adam Lanza, was unusually accurate or methodical in his fire.

"The news is just awful. The thoughts and prayers of Canadians are with the students and families in CT affected by this senseless violence," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrote on Twitter.

Even longtime foe Iran offered its condolences to the victims and families.

Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast drew parallels between the school shooting and the "children and teenagers who fall victim to armed actions... inside Gaza, the US, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran or Syria," calling on Americans to mobilise against "warmongering and the massacre of innocent people anywhere."

Closer to home, Mexico's newly inaugurated president, Enrique Pena Nieto, expressed his support to the US after the deadly shooting.

"My solidarity with the American people and President @BarackObama after the tragedy this morning in Connecticut," he wrote on Twitter.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou voiced "shock and grief" in a letter sent to Obama, saying that Taiwan will "staunchly support President Obama in taking meaningful action to prevent the recurrence of such tragedy".

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China to focus on domestic demand in 2013

EXPANDING domestic consumption will drive China's economic development next year, according to a statement issued at a key annual leadership meeting.

With export growth falling in November to 2.9 per cent year-on-year, down from 11.6 per cent in October, China's new leaders are pinning their hopes for the world's second-largest economy on fostering demand at home.

Sunday's statement was issued at the two-day Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing.

But unlike after previous meetings, state media did not immediately report China's much-anticipated target for gross domestic product.

China is expected to retain its 2012 growth target of 7.5 per cent for 2013.

Succeeding Hu Jintao last month, Communist Party leader Xi Jinping chose Shenzhen, the cradle of China's economic reforms and opening-up policy, as the venue for his first official trip, in which he stressed the need for comprehensive and systemic economic reform.

The weekend meeting granted Xi his first official opportunity to make his mark on the mapping-out of key economic plans for 2013, including not just the target for economic growth, but also a range of measures involving the deficit, tax policy and urbanisation.

The Chinese economy relies on exports, government expenditure and investment, with leaders vowing to protect foreign investors' rights, including intellectual property rights, according to the Xinhua news agency.

China also wants to encourage both private and public investment next year, including through increased investments in infrastructure projects.

China will also promote urbanisation, while retaining control of the property market, and will continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy.

Convened by the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council, the annual end-of-year conference usually takes three days to lay out the national agenda for the economy.

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Springsteen, Gaga join Stones in Newark

BRUCE Springsteen, Lady Gaga and more have come out to help the Rolling Stones celebrate their 50th anniversary on the final stop of their mini US tour.

Saturday's concert at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, was the last of five shows by the iconic band. The Stones did two concerts in London late last month, one in Brooklyn and then two in Newark.

Mick Jagger took time out during the concert to offer condolences to those grieving in Newtown, Connecticut, after Friday's school shooting that killed 20 children and six adults.

The concert was offered live on pay-per-view. Other special guests included the Black Keys, John Mayer, Gary Clark Jr and former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor.

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Japan conservatives win election: reports

Voters have begun casting ballots in Japan for a general election. Source: AAP

JAPAN'S conservative opposition has swept to victory in polls on Sunday, broadcasters say, in an apparent shift to the right as tensions rise with China and the economy continues to stumble.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) led by the hawkish Shinzo Abe appears set to secure a handsome majority in elections for the powerful lower house of parliament.

Voters appear to have abandoned Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda three years after his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) promised a change from the more than 50 years of almost unbroken LDP rule.

Broadcaster NHK, citing forecasts based on its own exit polls, said the LDP was likely to win 275 to 310 seats in the 480-seat lower house, against 55 to 77 seats to DPJ.

New Komeito, LDP's coalition partner, was likely to win 27 to 35 seats, NHK said.

That could give the conservative coalition a more than two-thirds majority in the powerful lower house, enough to override the upper house, in which no party has overall control.

"The LDP sweeps to victory; Abe administration to start," the online edition of the Nikkei newspaper said in its headline.

Nationalist former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, whose bid to buy disputed islands provoked a fierce diplomatic showdown with China, was also headed to parliament, NHK said.

Ishihara leads the populist Japan Restoration Party.

Abe, whose brief stint as premier in 2006-7 ended ignominiously, pledged to fix Japan's economy, which has suffered years of deflation, made worse by a soaring currency that has squeezed exporters.

He has also promised to boost spending on infrastructure projects at a time when large parts of the tsunami-ravaged northeast have yet to see significant rebuilding following the March 2011 catastrophe.

The collapse of an ageing highway tunnel that claimed nine lives earlier this month added weight to his campaign, which was criticised by opponents as a return to the LDP's "construction state" of the last century.

Public unease about a worsening security environment - North Korea lobbed a rocket over Japan's southern islands last week and China sent a plane into Japanese airspace - also apparently bolstered support for Abe.

He has promised to strengthen defences and revitalise a security alliance with the United States that is widely thought to have drifted under Noda's party.

Parliament will be called to session as early as December 26th to name Abe as the new prime minister, the Nikkei newspaper said.

"Mr Abe is expected to form his cabinet on the same day," the Nikkei said.

"He will issue his plan to draft an extra budget by the year-end as well as a broad direction for the next fiscal year's budget before closing the extraordinary Diet session on December 28," the Nikkei said.

In an evening that looked set to be a fairly miserable one for Noda, TV Asahi reported at least two of his ministers would lose their seats.

Internal Affairs Minister Shinji Tarutoko and Education Minister Makiko Tanaka appeared to have lost their constituency seats. It is possible that they may win through on the proportional representation part of the ballot.

Noda's fate as leader of the much-diminished DPJ also looked in doubt, reports said, even though he appeared to have retained his seat.

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