Man flees scene after crashing stolen car

POLICE are searching for the driver of a stolen car who fled a crash in the ACT that left a man severely injured.

They say the wanted man was driving a stolen blue Ford Territory in Kambah when he struck a black Holden Commodore on Sulwood Drive about 5.45pm on Wednesday.

The Commodore caught fire after impact and the driver was trapped inside until passersby pulled him clear.

The driver of the stolen car fled the scene on foot while the injured man was taken to Canberra Hospital in a critical condition.

The wanted man is around 165cm tall and was wearing blue jeans and a dark shirt with white stripes, police said in a statement.

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Record number of Germans in jobs

THE number of people in Germany who have a job rose to a record high last year, even though growth momentum is slowing as the eurozone debt crisis hits the German labour market.

The number of people in work in Germany increased by 416,000 or 1.0 per cent to an annual average 41.5 million last year, the sixth annual record in a row, the national statistics office Destatis calculated on Wednesday.

"The rise in employment in the second half of the year was nevertheless not quite so strong as in 2011," the statisticians cautioned.

At the same time, the annual average jobless total declined by 162,000 to 2.34 million last year, Destatis said.

That meant the jobless rate - which measures the number of people out of work as a proportion of the working population as a whole - declined to an annual average 5.3 per cent for 2012 from 5.7 per cent in 2011.

December jobless data, calculated by the federal labour office, are scheduled to be published on Thursday.

AFP

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Iraq and Britain discuss prisoner swap

BAGHDAD and London are discussing a prisoner transfer deal that could see a British security guard convicted of murder in Iraq serve the remainder of his sentence in his home country, officials say.

Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari has been invited to London to finalise and sign a memorandum of understanding over the transfer of convicts between the two countries, and while the deal would not solely affect Danny Fitzsimons, he would be a key beneficiary.

Fitzsimons became the first Western contractor to be convicted of a crime by an Iraqi court when he was sentenced to life in prison, equivalent to 20 years in jail under Iraqi law, in February 2011 for killing a Briton and an Australian in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone in August 2009.

"The British are insisting to make an agreement with Iraq, to take Danny Fitzsimons," justice ministry spokesman Haidar al-Saadi told AFP.

"We received an invitation from the (British) ambassador to go there and sign the agreement."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a British diplomat told AFP the deal was "not targeted at any specific individual, but that's not to say he (Fitzsimons) won't benefit from it".

Fitzsimons, a former British soldier who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, had insisted throughout his trial that he had acted in self-defence during an alcohol-fuelled brawl.

He told the court in west Baghdad that fellow Briton Paul McGuigan and Australian Darren Hoare had burst into his room and pinned him down before pointing an M4 rifle at his face, prompting him to use his pistol to kill them. He also wounded an Iraqi guard before being detained.

Fitzsimons was the first Westerner to be tried in Iraq following the US-led invasion of 2003.

Foreign security contractors had not been subject to Iraqi law until the beginning of 2009, when a security agreement between the United States and Iraq lifted their immunity.

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Rebels attack airbase in northwest Syria

The new year in Syria has started with air strikes near Damascus and the closure of Aleppo airport. Source: AAP

REBELS have attacked Syrian regime troops stationed around an airbase in northwestern Syria, causing casualties on both sides.

Clashes between mostly jihadist rebel fighters and President Bashar al-Assad's forces at Taftanaz airbase in Idlib province killed four insurgents and an unknown number of soldiers on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

The rebel assault came after authorities announced the temporary closure of the international airport in Aleppo province on Tuesday, after days of attacks there by the insurgents who hold vast swathes of territory in northern Syria.

A local resident told AFP that the army was carrying out air raids around the Taftanaz base in an attempt to repel the multipronged attack headed by the Islamist groups the Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham.

Fighting also broke out around the crucial Wadi Deif base, one of the last regime bastions in northwestern Syria, in a fresh jihadist-led bid to wrest control of the strategic post.

Insurgents captured the nearby town of Maaret al-Numan, located on the important Damascus-Aleppo highway, in October.

Near Damascus, regime forces bombarded districts to the southwest of the capital including Daraya, the site of a massacre last year, and where the army has been launching a fierce bid to regain control.

The observatory, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground to compile its tolls, reported that 104 people were killed nationwide on Tuesday, including 35 civilians.

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UK man shot dead at Thai NYE beach party

A 22-YEAR-OLD British tourist has been shot dead as he danced at a New Year party on one of Thailand's most famous islands after a fight between rival Thai gangs erupted on the beach, police say.

The holidaymaker was killed when a Thai man opened fire at a bar on the island of Koh Phangan in southern Thailand in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

"He was shot in the side while he was dancing on the beach," local policeman Lieutenant Colonel Somsak Noorod said, adding the area had been packed with revellers during the evening's New Year celebrations.

Police believe the gunman was aiming at members of a rival gang.

Phangan is a resort island in the Gulf of Thailand neighbouring Koh Samui and draws thousands of backpackers to its famous full moon parties.

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Bomb found near home of Delhi rape suspect

INDIAN police has arrested a man as he tried to plant a crude bomb near the home of one of the suspects in the New Delhi gang-rape case as a backlash against widespread sex crimes gathered steam.

As protests against harassment and violence against women continued, a chart-topping Indian rapper known for his sexually explicit lyrics also became embroiled in a growing campaign against sexism and misogyny in Indian society.

Yo Yo Honey Singh, whose hits include My Home My Village, saw his New Year's Eve concert in New Delhi cancelled following an online campaign which highlighted lyrics allegedly inciting abuse of women.

His 2007 track Prostitute refers to him having violent sex with a woman after he forces her to "dance naked" and includes the line: "You will scream and run but where can you go... I will take your life".

The furore over the rap star comes as the country comes to terms with the December 16 gang-rape in which a 23-year-old medical student was repeatedly assaulted and violated with an iron bar while being driven around in a bus for 40 minutes.

She died from internal injuries in a Singapore hospital at the weekend and her ashes were immersed Tuesday in the holy Ganges river by her family near their native village in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

The unnamed girl, whose parents had sold land to fund her studies, had been out to the cinema with her boyfriend when she was lured onto the bus by a gang of reportedly drunk joyriders.

Sexual violence and gang-rapes are commonplace in India, but the case has brought simmering anger - particularly among young urban women - to the boil and led to protests in the capital and calls for the death penalty for rapists.

Police said they had arrested a 37-year-old man on Tuesday in the narrow by-lanes of a slum in southwest Delhi after he allegedly tried to plant a crude bomb near the house of one of six suspects detained by police for the Delhi rape.

The low-grade device was filled with explosives usually used in firecrackers, a police official said.

Protests in India, which continued on Monday and on New Year's Eve, have also spilled to other parts of the world with people taking to the streets in Hong Kong, Islamabad, London and Kathmandu.

On Tuesday, about 30 women's rights activists protested outside the Indian consulate in Hong Kong, urging authorities to enact tougher laws to punish sex crimes.

The government, which has faced a wave of anger, has set up a panel headed by a former chief justice to recommend changes to the criminal law dealing with sexual crimes.

The panel, which was set up last week, had already received more than 17,000 suggestions until Monday, The Indian Express newspaper reported.

Also on Tuesday, the Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the six suspects for the gang-rape risked the death penalty if found guilty and the case against them appeared very strong.

"We have a solid case with very good evidence... a magistrate has recorded the victim's dying declaration and we have a prime witness, the girl's friend, who has identified the rapists," Shinde told The Economic Times newspaper.

The victim's boyfriend, whom friends said she intended to marry, tried to prevent the rape and is likely to give crucial evidence during what is expected to be a fast-tracked trial.

Police are to file charges and present their evidence against the suspects - five men and a minor - on Thursday.

Delhi police have said their probe is almost complete, pending the arrival of an autopsy report from doctors in Singapore and the conclusions of forensic experts.

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Pope prays for peace at New Year mass

POPE Benedict XVI prayed for the "gift of peace" this year, condemning the inequality between rich and poor and "unregulated financial capitalism" at a New Year's mass in St Peter's Basilica.

The Pope spoke of "hotbeds of tension and confrontation caused by the growing inequality between rich and poor and the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mentality also expressed by unregulated financial capitalism."

But he also said that humanity had "an innate vocation for peace" and quoted from the Biblical passage: "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God."

Peacemakers "are like the yeast in the dough - they allow humanity to grow according to God's design," he said.

The Roman Catholic Church celebrates New Year's Day as World Peace Day.

The Pope later addressed a crowd in St Peter's Square with his traditional Angelus prayer and invoked the blessing of the Virgin Mary "like a mother blesses her children who are about to set off on a voyage."

"A new year is like a voyage. With the light and grace of God, may it be a voyage of peace for every person and every family, for every country and for the whole world," he said.

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Attacks down but Iraq in 'low-level war'

VIOLENCE in Iraq dropped in 2012, data shows, but insurgents proved they were still capable of mounting waves of attacks and a watchdog warned the country was still in a "low-level war".

The warnings, which come after the first full year since American forces completed their withdrawal in December 2011, were punctuated by a series of nationwide shootings and bombings on New Year's Eve in which 28 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded.

The latest violence came just days ahead of a major Shi'ite commemoration ceremony, and after more than a week of non-stop anti-government rallies in Sunni-majority areas where demonstrators allege targeting of their community by Iraq's Shi'ite-led authorities.

A total of 144 people were killed across Iraq last month, including 40 policemen and 15 soldiers, and 360 others were wounded, according to figures compiled by AFP based on reports from security and medical officials.

The monthly death toll was near 2012's low of 136 set in October.

And data released by Iraq's ministries of health, interior and defence said 2,174 people were killed throughout last year, sharply lower than in previous years, particularly compared to the height of the country's brutal sectarian war from 2005 to 2008 when tens of thousands were killed.

But Britain-based monitor group Iraq Body Count put the overall death toll at 4,471, more than double the official figures, though the last three months of 2012 represented a record low.

It warned in its annual report that "the country remains in a state of low-level war ... with a 'background' level of everyday armed violence punctuated by occasional larger-scale attacks designed to kill many people at once."

"2012 has been more consistent with an entrenched conflict than with any transformation in the security situation for Iraqis in the first year since the formal withdrawal of US troops," it said.

US troops withdrew in December 2011, though a small contingent of around 150 soldiers remains as part of a bilateral agreement to help train and supply Iraq's security forces.

Baghdad's police and military are widely agreed to be largely able to maintain internal security, but are not expected to be fully capable of defending Iraq's borders, airspace and waters until 2020.

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Over it - banish the term fiscal cliff

SPOILER alert: This story contains words and phrases that some people want to ban from the English language. 'Spoiler alert' is among them. So are 'kick the can down the road,' 'trending' and 'bucket list'.

A dirty dozen have landed on the 38th annual List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.

The nonbinding, tongue-in-cheek decree released on Monday by northern Michigan's Lake Superior State University is based on nominations submitted from the United States, Canada and beyond.

Spoiler alert, the seemingly thoughtful way to warn readers or viewers about looming references to a key plot point in a film or TV show, nevertheless passed its use-by date for many, including Joseph Foly, of Fremont, California.

He argued in his submission the phrase is "used as an obnoxious way to show one has trivial information and is about to use it, no matter what."

The phrase receiving the most nominations this year is 'fiscal cliff', banished because of its overuse by media outlets when describing across-the-board federal tax increases and spending cuts that economists say could harm the economy in the new year without congressional action.

University spokesman Tom Pink said that in nearly four decades, the Sault Ste. Marie school has "banished" around 900 words or phrases, and somehow the whole idea has survived rapidly advancing technology and diminishing attention spans.

Nominations used to come by mail, then fax and website, he said, and now most come through the university's Facebook page. That's fitting, since social media has helped accelerate the life cycle of certain words and phrases, such as this year's entry 'YOLO' - "you only live once."

"The list surprises me in one way or another every year, and the same way every year: I'm always surprised how people still like it, love it," he said.

As usual, the etymological exercise - or exorcise - only goes so far. Past lists haven't eradicated 'viral,' 'amazing,' 'LOL' or 'man cave' from everyday use.

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Sydney's firework go off with a roar

Sydney's lord mayor says the city is spending $6.6 million on its New Year's Eve event. Source: AAP

SYDNEY'S skyline has exploded in gold, pink, green and blue as part of the traditional New Year's Eve family-oriented curtain raiser.

The ten minute spectacular at 9pm (AEDT)- which illuminated the city and dazzled spectators - is a warm-up for the city's midnight show-stopper.

Under balmy and clear skies, tens of thousands of revellers lined Darling Harbour and other viewing hotspots, and about 1.5 million filled the harbour foreshore.

As streams of incandescent colour shot into the heavens, families on picnic blankets cheered and clapped along with others aboard luxury yachts.

Colours streamed from four barges situated around the harbour, with gold flashes cascading like tinsel as a gold butterfly-like design lit up the bridge.

At one stage fireworks fell from the structure like a waterfall, with the display reaching a kaleidoscopic climax of green, red and blue fireworks.

"It was all great, amazing," said Lee Whittaker, from Denistone, who brought her kids Mel and Leon with her.

Kallya Alffonso, from Maroubra, said festivities in Sydney were much better than her native Brazil.

"Sydney is a very pretty city, the Harbour Bridge and Opera House make it looks spectacular," she said.

"It's the spirit too, everybody is here together, and it's just the whole atmosphere."

Event organisers estimate a record 130,000 people packed Sydney's Darling Harbour for the 9pm display.

"There is definitely more people here than last year," organiser Sal Sharah told AAP.

"We've had great weather and a great lead up to this evening."

The early show was greeted with cheers from the thousands of spectators at Lady Macquarie's Chair, many of whom had waited much of the day under a hot sun.

"I think they were awesome," said nine-year-old Nell Whittaker.

"I loved the sparkle effect, and they were really loud too."

A much-hyped show-stopper is then set to wow the world at midnight.

All eyes are on Sydney, one of the first major cities to ring in the new year, with more than a billion people expected to tune in to watch the $6.6 million party worldwide.

Many local partygoers are only now emerging to gather at pubs and clubs in time for midnight.

Others will cram onto rooftops or gather in backyards for a VB and sausage sambo to say goodbye to 2012

Celebrations in Sydney dwarf rival cities, with only 100,000 attending Paris fireworks, while 700,000 revellers gather for festivities in London.

Pop princess Kylie Minogue, chosen as the event's creative ambassador, will be honoured with a one-of-a-kind sparkling musical note firework at the turn of the year.

The semiquaver will be one of 100,000 individual pyrotechnic creations this year, including brand new koala, octopus and hand images up in lights.

People going to the CBD to watch the fireworks have been urged to leave their cars behind and take public transport, with road closures in place and extra + and buses laid on for the night.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge will be closed in both directions from 11pm on Monday to 1am on Tuesday.

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