Finnish PM unharmed after attack

A MAN wielding a knife has tried to attack Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen in the southwestern town of Turku, but was swiftly arrested by police, the prime minister's office says.

"Prime Minister Katainen's security men have apprehended a person who had brought a sharp weapon to Prime Minister Katainen's electoral meeting in Turku," said the statement on Monday.

"The Prime Minister was not injured and the program will continue as planned."

Security guards quickly swooped in to protect Katainen, 41, and removed him from the scene. He returned shortly afterwards to resume campaigning.

A young "dishevelled"-looking man had approached the prime minister to shake his hand, saying he was in a difficult situation and needed help, newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet reported.

"Then the man went down on his knees, pulled out a knife and said something about killing," photographer Robert Seger, who witnessed the event, told the newspaper.

Katainen had been discussing taxes on diesel and the taxes paid by the elderly before the incident.

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Final US debate to focus on foreign policy

EDS: Debate starts at noon AEDT on Tuesday

By Steven Hurst

WASHINGTON, Oct 22 AP - Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney will tangle over foreign policy in their final presidential debate, with both candidates still looking for a breakout moment in a deadlocked White House campaign two weeks before Election Day.

Polls show Obama with a small advantage in voter perceptions about which candidate is best prepared to handle US foreign policy in chaotic world.

Romney will do his best in the 90-minute debate in Florida to minimise the president's accomplishments and win the support of the small slice of undecided voters among the millions of Americans who will be watching.

Both candidates usually campaign on domestic issues, but the former Massachusetts governor has been hitting Obama hard on the administration's changing explanations of what happened in last month's attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where militants killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The Syria violence, Iran-Israel tensions, China, terrorism and the war winding down in Afghanistan were also expected to come up in Monday's debate.

Moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS News has picked five topics, devoting the most time to the Middle East and terrorism. Other subjects are America's role in the world, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Israel and Iran, and the rise of China.

Obama and Romney don't differ as sharply on foreign policy issues as they do on domestic issues such as the economy. One difference is their personal relationships with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a friend and former colleague of Romney but has a chilly stance with Obama.

As the November 6 vote approaches, 41 of the 50 US states are essentially decided, and the candidates are fighting over the remaining nine battleground states, including the critical Ohio and Florida.

"It really now comes down to that small segment of undecided voters," deputy Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told NBC on Monday. "We feel pretty good about where we are."

The battleground states assume outsized importance because the presidency is decided in state-by-state contests, not by a national popular vote. The system can lead to a candidate winning the popular vote but losing the presidency, as former vice-president Al Gore did in 2000.

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday showed Obama and Romney tied, with both candidates backed by 47 per cent of likely voters nationwide.

The poll was conducted after the second presidential debate last Tuesday that Obama was seen as winning after a poor performance in the first debate on October 3. In the last such poll before the presidential debates began, the president held a three-point lead over Romney, 49 per cent to 46 per cent.

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Greek deficit, debt worse than thought

GREECE'S national statistics agency has revised upwards the country's 2011 deficit and public debt figures, which will likely further complicate efforts to meet fiscal targets set by international creditors for bailout aid.

According to the still provisional data, the 2011 deficit stood at 9.4 per cent of gross domestic product and the public debt at 170.6 per cent, EL.STAT said on Monday.

"The revisions as regards the debt ratios are primarily due to the update of gross domestic product estimates," the agency said in a statement.

Earlier this month EL.STAT revised the estimate for the economy's performance last year to a 7.1 per cent contraction from an earlier calculation of 6.9 per cent.

In April, the statistics authority had estimated that the public deficit stood at 9.1 per cent of gross domestic product.

While more than three times the EU limit, it was close to the nine per cent target.

The country is trying to squeeze the deficit down to 6.6 per cent of GDP this year.

In April, public debt was estimated to have reached 165.3 per cent of GDP, whereas the EU limit is 60 per cent of output.

Despite a rollover earlier this year, Greece's debt is expected to increase from 169.5 per cent of output in 2012 to 179.3 per cent in 2013, according to next year's draft budget.

Heading for a sixth year of recession, Greece has been relying on international aid packages for its financial survival and is currently in negotiations with its EU-IMF creditors to unblock a 31.2 billion euros ($A39.7 billion) tranche of aid.

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Sri Lanka seeks help on Aust-bound trawler

SRI Lanka's police have sought help from Interpol to track down a fishing trawler stolen by its own crew in a bid to illegally transport asylum seekers to Australia.

A magistrate issued arrest warrants against the skipper and 13 others who staged a hijacking last week to try to cover up the theft of the boat and use it in the highly lucrative people-smuggling business, a police statement said on Monday.

"Police today sought the assistance of Interpol to execute the arrest warrants against the 14 individuals involved in the robbery of the trawler on October 14," the statement said.

Police told the magistrate that the skipper of the trawler had stolen the vessel from its owner before taking on board another 10 people in a suspected journey to Australia.

Two out of the six crewmen who were later found bobbing in the water off the island's southern coast gave conflicting accounts of the events and are being detained for questioning.

The pair had initially told police that the trawler had been attacked by about 40 suspected illegal immigrants carrying swords, who arrived in four small boats and overpowered the crew.

Police said two other trawlers had also been reported missing off the island's southern region since October 2 and they too could have been stolen for people-smuggling.

Sri Lankan authorities say they have detained over 1000 people who have tried to leave for Australia illegally this year.

Australia hopes the prospect of years in detention on remote Pacific islands will deter asylum seekers from attempting the dangerous sea voyage, which has cost hundreds of lives over the past decade.

Sri Lankans pay up to $US3000 ($A2925) for a place on trawlers which take around two weeks to make the treacherous crossing to Australia.

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11-year-old in US court on manslaughter

AN 11-year-old US girl charged with juvenile manslaughter in the death of a three-month-old baby has entered a "no answer" plea.

The girl bit her nails and looked down during the hearing in Maine on Monday. Her other plea choices were "admission" and "denial".

Three-month-old Brooklyn Foss-Greenaway was staying at the girl's home in the care of the girl's mother. The mother called police on July 8 to say the infant wasn't breathing.

The state hasn't released the cause of death, but the infant's mother, Nicole "Nicki" Greenaway, was told that her child ingested medication and was suffocated.

The state chose not to try the girl as an adult. If convicted as a juvenile, the maximum penalty is incarceration until age 21.

The girl's lawyer, John Martin, said he felt the manslaughter charge was "too harsh" given the girl's age.

The judge on Monday ordered a competency evaluation for the girl.

The Associated Press generally does not identify juveniles accused of crimes.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services removed the girl from her mother's care. In a letter, an agency case worker said the girl had a behaviour disorder that made her unsuitable for caring for the infant.

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Man charged following Springwood brawl

A MAN has been charged over an assault west of Sydney that left a man in hospital with serious head injuries.

Police allege the assault took place outside a hotel in Springwood about 8.45pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

It's alleged a 22-year-old man punched a 20-year-old man in the head, causing him to fall and hit his head on the pavement outside the hotel.

A 22-year-old man was on Monday charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and was refused bail to appear in Katoomba Local Court on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old man remains in Nepean Hospital in an induced coma with a fractured skull, police said.

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US has 'zero' influence on Mideast: Carter

FORMER US president Jimmy Carter says Washington has "zero" influence over Israel and the Palestinians to resolve their decades-long conflict, and its sway has dropped to the lowest level in 45 years.

Speaking on a tour of east Jerusalem with a group of former world leaders known as "The Elders", Carter said on Monday he was not optimistic that the United States could reassert its influence and suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given up on the two-state solution.

"A major change lately has been the withdrawal of American influence" in the Israeli-Palestinian arena, Carter said, estimating it was the first time since the 1967 Six-Day War that Washington had not "played a major role" in trying to resolve the conflict.

"This is the first time that we've seen since 1967 that an American government hasn't played a major role," he said.

"America now has ... zero influence on either side and in fact has withdrawn our commitment to be the major negotiator" between the two sides, he said.

"And when the United States withdraws, of course, that gives Israel a completely free hand to do what it wants," he said, describing it as a "very serious disappointment".

"US government policy in the last two or three years has been the rapid withdrawal from any kind of controversy that might not be pleasant."

Whereas Washington was once "the main obstacle to settlement", it is now "dormant", said Carter, who served as the 39th US president from 1977-81.

The 88-year-old said he hoped that the upcoming presidential election would help revive US influence in the region, but admitted he was not optimistic.

Former Irish president Mary Robinson, also a member of The Elders who was with the group on its last visit exactly a year ago, said the chances of a two-state solution to the conflict appeared to be disappearing.

"What we want to do as Elders is draw attention to the fact that there is a kind of insidious undermining of the possibility of a two-state solution," she said.

She indicated that every time the group visited, it saw evidence of more settlements, and more east Jerusalem Palestinian homes being taken over by Israelis.

Carter said he thought Netanyahu was no longer interested a two-state solution to the conflict and was only interested in increasing Israel's control over the West Bank.

"I think that Netanyahu has decided to abandon the two-state solution," he said, suggesting the Israeli leader's policy was now about "taking over the entire West Bank."

"I think that all the previous (Israeli) prime ministers have been committed to the two-state solution and I don't believe that that is the case now in Israel," he said.

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