400 asylum seekers reach Italian island

TWO boats carrying more than 400 African migrants have arrived on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, the latest in a wave of thousands of undocumented migrants arriving from North African shores.

The boats were intercepted on Saturday by Italian coast guards in open sea south of the rocky outcrop, which is closer to Africa than to the Italian mainland.

The first boat carried 218 sub-Saharan migrants including seven women.

The second boat, which was some 20 metres long, had around 220 people including 20 women, Italian news agency ANSA reported, citing the coast guard.

Most of the recent Lampedusa arrivals have been on boats coming from Libya.

Migrants are usually taken to a small facility on Lampedusa and then to centres for asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants in other parts of Italy.

The charity Save the Children on Thursday said the situation was "chaotic", with 722 migrants still on the island including 102 women and 15 unaccompanied minors, and urged the government to transfer them to better accommodation.

Tens of thousands of migrants landed on Italian shores last year in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Thousands more have arrived this year despite Italy's calls for Tunisia and Libya to step up their maritime border controls.

Hundreds have died over the past two years in the perilous Mediterranean crossings, when their heavily overcrowded dinghies and fishing boats capsized or sank in stormy weather or were cast adrift due to engine failure.

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Syrian troops attack rebels: report

SYRIAN opposition activists say government troops have launched a major attack on rebel-held areas south of the capital Damascus.

"The Syrian troops are trying, under a barrage of heavy shelling, to storm Daraya from various directions," Haytham al-Abdullah, a Damascus-based activist, said.

Daraya is a poor Sunni Muslim suburb and a stronghold of the hardline group al-Nousra Front, which has been blacklisted by the United States as "a terrorist organisation".

The head of the opposition British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were eager to tighten their grip on the area.

"Daraya is the closest point to the Mezzeh military airport, which is currently the only facility used by the regime's officials and troops to move in and out of the capital," he said.

Rebels have recently been fighting with troops in and around Damascus, raising the possibility that Assad could lose his hold on the capital.

Rebels are believed to be controlling several areas near Damascus airport.

News from Syria is difficult to verify, as authorities have barred most foreign media from the country since an uprising started in March last year.

Meanwhile, the ambassadors of Russia, China, Syria and Iran to Lebanon reiterated at a meeting in Beirut that a political solution was the only way to end the 21-month conflict.

"The ongoing fighting in Syria, which targets the regime and is supported by some states, has so far only resulted in further death and destruction, and should stop immediately," the envoys said, according to a statement issued by the Iranian embassy in Beirut.

The meeting came two days after Russia's deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, said rebels might eventually defeat Assad's regime.

Those remarks were later played down by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

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China to open longest high-speed railway

THE world's longest high-speed rail route, running from the Chinese capital Beijing to Guangzhou in the south, will open for business on December 26, Chinese state media says.

Travelling at an average speed of 300 kilometres per hour, the line will slash journey times linking Beijing in the north with the country's southern economic hub from 22 hours to eight hours, the China Daily newspaper said.

The December opening means the 2298 kilometre route, with 35 stops including major cities Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Changsha, will be operational for China's Lunar New Year holiday period, in which hundreds of millions of people travel across the country in the world's largest annual migration.

The specific date was chosen to commemorate the birth of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, state media said.

China's high-speed rail network is booming. Only established in 2007, it has quickly become the largest in the world, with 8358 kilometres of track at the end of 2010 and expected to almost double to 16,000 kilometres by 2020.

The network, however, has been plagued by graft and safety scandals following its rapid expansion, with a deadly bullet train collision in July 2011 killing 40 people and sparking a public outcry.

The accident - China's worst rail disaster since 2008 - triggered a flood of criticism of the government and accusations that the authorities had compromised safety in its rush to expand.

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Mandela continues hospital stay

NELSON Mandela remains in hospital, a week after he was admitted for treatment for a lung infection, a government official says.

"Mr Mandela is still in hospital, still comfortable and receiving treatment," said presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj.

Mr Maharaj could not comment on rumours that the 94-year-old could be soon be discharged from Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital, a private facility in the capital Pretoria.

It was not clear when Mandela was moved to the private hospital from the One Military hospital, the country's top military healthcare facility where government officials initially said Mandela was being treated.

The Heart Hospital bills itself as the first and "only hospital of its kind - a private, specialised heart hospital - in South Africa".

The Nobel Peace Prize winner who led the country to democracy in 1994 was flown from his rural home village of Qunu to Pretoria on December 8.

He has a long history of lung problems dating back decades when he contracted tuberculosis while in prison.

He was previously hospitalised for an acute respiratory infection in January 2011, when he was kept for two nights.

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'Samsung chip plant caused cancer'

A SOUTH Korean government agency says that working at a Samsung Electronics factory caused the breast cancer of a worker who died earlier this year, only the second time it has recognised a link between cancer and Samsung's chip plants.

The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service, which is part of the labour ministry, ruled earlier this month that there was a "considerable causal relationship" between the woman's cancer and her five years of work at a semiconductor plant near Seoul.

The ruling didn't become public until Friday when the agency announced compensation for the woman's family.

Samsung spokesman James Chung said it will not appeal the government's decision. The company is the world's largest maker of computer memory chips.

There have been very few cases in South Korea in which a link between working conditions and cancer has been convincingly demonstrated.

Nearly 30 South Koreans have filed claims with the agency that working at Samsung caused rare forms of disease, cancer, multiple sclerosis and brain tumours. Another dozen people whose claims were rejected by the agency have filed court appeals.

The Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service collects insurance fees from companies and makes rulings on whether diseases are caused by workplace hazards. Workers file industrial disease-related claims with the agency, not with their employer. Either party can appeal to the courts.

The woman, whose last name is Kim, died in March, age 36, three years after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Kim worked for Samsung from 1995 to 2000. Her first name was not released at her family's request.

The agency didn't say how much compensation was paid, but spokesman Kang Byung-soo said it usually amounts to nearly four years of a worker's salary.

"There was an exposure to organic solvents and radiation. The earlier the exposure is, the more likely the cancer is caused," the workers compensation agency said in a statement about Kim's case.

The agency said it also reviewed records from overseas which showed that working night shifts is linked to a higher chance of breast cancer.

Kim, who worked eight to 12 hours a day, was often assigned night time shifts that started at 10pm and ended at 6am, according to Lee Jong-ran, an official at SHARPs (Supporters for the Health And Rights of People in the Semiconductor industry).

Kim worked at a plant without a radiation detector and was exposed to benzene and other carcinogens, according to the activist group.

Lee said the latest decision will have a positive impact on Samsung employees who are hoping to prove a link between their diseases and working conditions at Samsung Electronics.

"Because the government recognised the link, people who have pending lawsuits will feel encouraged," she said.

There have been three recent cases in which authorities recognised that working conditions at Samsung had contributed to diseases.

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Egypt opposition hold last-ditch rallies

EGYPT'S mainly secular opposition has gathered for last-ditch protests against a new constitution it slams as divisive, but on the eve of a referendum it held back from urging a boycott.

The opposition National Salvation Front expressed "deep concern" over the vote called by Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, which is intended to complete the transition from veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak's rule.

But while again protesting against the spreading of polling over two successive Saturdays, it refrained from urging supporters to stay away from a plebiscite that analysts say the Islamists are likely to carry.

The bloc has organised weeks of protests against what it regards as the hijacking of the Arab Spring uprising by an Islamist-dominated panel to push through a constitution that leans too far towards Islamic sharia law.

Clashes last week between opposition protesters and Morsi supporters left eight people dead and hundreds injured.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a former UN nuclear energy agency chief who heads the opposition Front, said on his Twitter feed: "Insistence on referendum in an explosive, polarised, chaotic & lawless environment is leading country to the brink."

Morsi has ordered Egypt's military to help police maintain security until the results of the referendum are known. A total of 130,000 police and 120,000 soldiers will be deployed to provide security, interior ministry and military officials told AFP.

Morsi spread polling in the referendum over two days because of a lack of judges willing to provide the statutory supervision for the vote.

Polls will open on Saturday in the biggest cities of Cairo and Alexandria and eight other provinces. A week later, on December 22, the other half of the country will vote.

Morsi says the new constitution is needed to establish stability after the early 2011 ouster of Mubarak ending three decades of autocratic rule.

His Muslim Brotherhood and ultra-orthodox Salafist groups backing the draft charter have been campaigning for days for Egypt's 51 million voters to approve it.

The opposition - which initially wanted the referendum postponed and has said it could yet call a last-minute boycott if the poll is insufficiently monitored by judges and independent observers - has only started urging a "no" vote since Thursday.

"It's you who will pay the price if you vote 'yes'. 'No' to the constitution," said an online campaign advertisement by an opposition group called April 6.

At least two anti-constitution rallies were to be held in Cairo on Friday, after the main weekly Muslim prayers.

The pro-referendum camp had its supporters stationed along main roads holding "Yes to the constitution" placards. It has also released videos online with a campaign song that goes: "This constitution is not too bad, it was written by a committee of heroes."

International watchdogs, including the UN human rights chief, as well as the United States and the European Union, have expressed reservations about the draft constitution because of loopholes that could be used to weaken human rights, the rights of women and the independence of judges.

Analysts said the proven ability of the Muslim Brotherhood to get its voters out could well see the draft constitution passed, although that was not certain.

Polls open on Saturday at 8.00am (1700 AEDT) and are scheduled to close at 7.00pm (0400 AEDT Sunday).

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22 children hurt in China school attack

A KNIFE-WIELDING man has injured 22 children and an adult outside a primary school in central China as students were arriving for morning classes, police say.

It's the latest in a series of periodic rampage attacks at schools and kindergartens.

Friday's attack in the Henan province village of Chengping happened shortly before 8am (1100 AEDT), said a police officer from Guangshan county, where the village is located.

The attacker, 36-year-old villager Min Yingjun, is now in police custody, said the officer, who declined to give her name, as is customary among Chinese civil servants.

A Guangshan county hospital administrator said the man first attacked an elderly woman, then students, before being subdued by security guards who have been posted across China following a spate of school attacks in recent years.

He said there were no deaths among the nine students admitted, although two badly injured children had been transferred to better-equipped hospitals outside the county.

A doctor at Guangshan's hospital of traditional Chinese medicine said that seven students had been admitted, but that none were seriously injured.

Neither the hospital administrator nor the doctor would give his name.

It was not clear how old the injured children were, but Chinese primary school pupils are generally six to 11 years old.

A notice posted on the Guangshan county government's website confirmed the number of injured and said an emergency response team had been set up to investigate the attacks.

No motive was given for the stabbings, which echo a string of similar assaults against schoolchildren in 2010 that killed nearly 20 and wounded more than 50. The most recent such attack took place in August, when a knife-wielding man broke into a middle school in the southern city of Nanchang and stabbed two students before fleeing.

Most of the attackers have been mentally disturbed men involved in personal disputes or unable to adjust to the rapid pace of social change, underscoring grave weaknesses in the antiquated Chinese medical system's ability to diagnose and treat psychiatric illness.

In one of the worst incidents, a man described as an unemployed, middle-aged doctor killed eight children with a knife in March 2010 to vent his anger over a thwarted romantic relationship.

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IAEA confident of nuclear deal with Iran

THE UN nuclear agency has expressed confidence that it will clinch a deal with Iran next month under which Tehran will at last answer "credible" evidence that it has conducted atomic weapons research.

Herman Nackaerts, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief inspector, said after what he called "good meetings" in Tehran that the deal would include access to the Parchin base where the agency suspects explosives tests applicable for nuclear weapons took place.

Such a breakthrough, if it really happens, could indicate that Iran, feeling the pinch from massive sanctions pressure, may give ground in parallel diplomatic efforts with six world powers stalled since June. But that is a big "if", experts say.

"We have agreed to meet again on 16 January next year, where we expect to finalise the structured approach and start implementing it then shortly after that," Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport, saying Parchin was "part of" the arrangement under negotiation.

On Thursday, Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was quoted by state media as saying in typically upbeat fashion that the meeting was "constructive, positive, and good progress has been made".

The IAEA wants Iran to address substantively a mass of what the agency calls "overall, credible" evidence set out in a major 2011 report that until 2003, and possibly since, Iran did weapons research.

Iran denies seeking or ever having sought nuclear weapons, and says its program is exclusively peaceful.

So far, including in a string of previous fruitless meetings between the IAEA and Iran this year both in Tehran and Vienna, Iran has rejected the alleged evidence outright.

This is because the bulk is from foreign intelligence agencies, including from arch foe Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state which has refused to rule out bombing Iran to stop it also getting the bomb.

The IAEA has zeroed in on Parchin near Tehran because its information on activities there is "independent", such as from commercially available satellite imagery or an unnamed "foreign expert".

Tehran also says the IAEA has already visited the site near Tehran twice in 2005. The agency counters that since then, it has received additional information that makes it want to go back.

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China defies US pressure over North Korea

World leaders condemned North Korea's rocket launch, with the US demanding there be consequences. Source: AAP

CHINA has resisted US-led pressure to bring its ally North Korea to heel for launching a long-range rocket, arguing that any response from the United Nations should be "prudent" and measured.

The United States demanded further action from China - Pyongyang's foremost patron - and US allies pressed for stronger sanctions, after the UN Security Council condemned North Korea for carrying out Wednesday's banned launch.

But foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters that China believes any UN response "should be prudent, appropriate and conducive to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and avoid the escalation of the situation".

North Korea says it placed a satellite in orbit for peaceful research, but critics say the launch amounted to a banned ballistic missile test that marked a major advance for the communist state's nuclear weapons program.

Hong reaffirmed that China "regrets" the rocket launch, avoiding much stronger language of condemnation used by the US, South Korea and Japan among others.

In South Korea, foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-Young said that North Korea "must pay the price" for its actions as he called for a new round of sanctions.

China is considered to have the most influence over North Korea and US officials are scrutinising its policy for any hints of change as Communist Party chief Xi Jinping gradually takes the reins of power.

But Chinese state media downplayed the need for stepped-up sanctions and said that in any case, China has limited influence over Pyongyang.

"The real problem is China's strength is not sufficient to influence its neighbour's situation," the Global Times daily said in an editorial titled "NK move shows China's lack of leverage".

A bellicose Western reaction risked driving North Korea into a corner with potentially devastating results, state editorials said.

"That is why China should not take a co-operative stance with the US, Japan and South Korea in imposing sanctions on North Korea," the Global Times said.

South Korea's defence ministry said that the satellite launched by the rocket was in operational orbit, but the main concern in the West is that North Korea may be perfecting technology to fire missiles as far as the US Pacific coast.

Analysts say the symbolism of the launch was also a prime motivating factor for North Korea as the youthful Kim Jong-Un shores up his leadership a year on from the death of his father Kim Jong-Il on December 17 last year.

China did join other members of the Security Council in condemning the launch as a "clear violation" of UN resolutions.

But diplomats at the council meeting told AFP that China's UN ambassador resisted having tougher language in the statement, and did not allow inclusion of the phrase that North Korea had used "ballistic missile technology".

Masao Okonogi, honorary professor at Keio University, told AFP that China was employing its usual tactic of gentle persuasion with the aim of getting North Korea to open up.

"I think it wants to shift the North toward the opening up of its economy without driving it to the wall. By doing so, it is considering prompting North Korea to transform its structure gradually."

Outrage over Wednesday's launch was mixed with concern that North Korea may follow past practice in following up a missile or rocket launch with a nuclear test.

The North's first nuclear test in 2006 came three months after it tested a long-range missile. On that occasion, Pyongyang announced the test six days before it exploded the device.

The second test, in May 2009, came a month after a rocket launch that North Korea claimed had put a satellite in space. Pyongyang had threatened the second test unless the UN Security Council apologised for its condemnation of the launch.

That precedent has reportedly been cited in the past by China as a reason for resisting tougher sanctions on North Korea, arguing that Pyongyang tends to kick back hardest when it feels cornered.

But the North said it would ignore international warnings.

"We will continue to exercise our legitimate right to launch satellites," a Pyongyang foreign ministry spokesman said.

A previous launch of North Korea's Unha-3 rocket in April ended in embarrassing failure, with the carrier exploding shortly after take-off, and the Kim regime was believed keen to mark this month's anniversary with an emphatic success.

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Hong Kong stocks end 0.26% lower

HONG Kong shares have fallen 0.26 per cent on profit-taking and corporate fundraising injecting new shares into the market, breaking a three-day rally that saw the market hit a 16-month high.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index (HSI) on Thursday eased 57.77 points to close at 22,445.58 on turnover of HK$62.49 billion ($A7.67 billion).

Blue-chip power producer CLP tapped the market for $US984 million ($A936.47 million) through a share placement, dropping 3.6 per cent to $HK64.80, while Uni-President China slumped 5.3 per cent to $HK9.01 and Kaisa tumbled 7.7 per cent to $HK2.39 as investors sold shares.

"Although there are fundraising activities, it is hard to determine when the market may peak amid the current liquidity-driven rally," Ben Kwong, chief operating officer at KGI Asia told Dow Jones Newswires.

The HSI touched a fresh 16-month high of 22,563.14 in the morning session, after the announcement of fresh US economic stimulus overnight.

After a two-day meeting the policy committee of the US central bank said it would replace its "Operation Twist" bond swapping program with $US45 billion a month in straight bond buys, on top of the $US40 billion a month purchasing announced in September.

Jackson Wong, an investment manager at Tanrich Securities, said that he expects the current bullish cycle to extend into the middle of next year.

Chinese shares ended down 1.02 per cent. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 21.25 points to 2,061.48 on turnover of 52.3 billion yuan ($A7.99 billion).

"The market is likely to be weighed by potential tight liquidity conditions in the coming weeks," China Minzu Securities analyst Chen Wei told Dow Jones Newswires.

"Corporates that have positions in the stock market may tend to cash in because they need cash to pay off loans at the year-end," he added.

Among metals firms Gansu Ronghua Industry lost 4.36 per cent to 7.67 yuan and Xiamen Tungsten dropped 3.67 per cent to 33.04 yuan.

Coal miner Xinjiang Baihuacun lost 3.46 per cent to 9.22 yuan while Shanxi Coking Coal shed 2.90 per cent to 7.69 yuan.

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