Kashmir cleric says girl band 'un-Islamic'

INDIAN Kashmir's most senior Muslim cleric has called for the plug to be pulled on an all-girl rock group, calling the band "un-Islamic" and accusing them of "indecent" behaviour.

Pragaash (First Light) sprang to prominence last December when the high school trio, all of whom are Muslim, won an annual Battle of Bands competition held in Srinagar, the state capital.

But the three-piece, whose members are all aged around 16, has since been the target of a cultural backlash in the Muslim majority state, including hate mail on their Facebook page, and have held back from playing any more concerts.

While artists, numerous others and even the state's chief minister have sprung to their defence, the Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, Bashiruddin Ahmad, has now weighed into the debate by calling for them to quit.

"When girls and young women stray from the rightful path and indulge in shameless and indecent behaviour ... this kind of non-serious activity (music) can become the first step towards our destruction," he said in a statement on Sunday.

"Some girls who believe this mirage to be a real spring are set on a destructive path. They should stop in their tracks."

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, however, promised full security for the band members and urged them to continue singing.

"Jammu and Kashmir always had a musical history. The girls can continue their musical career. The state will provide security," Abdullah said in an interview with CNN-IBN news channel.

Kashmir is India's only Muslim-majority state and hardline Islamists have a reputation for trying to impose Islamic law, forcing the closure of cinemas and liquor stores with the onset of an anti-India insurgency in 1990.

Kashmiri women, who often do not wear full veils, have in the past been targeted by campaigns to enforce Islamic dress codes.

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Oracle expands capacity with Acme deal

ORACLE says it is buying Acme Packet for $US2.1 billion ($A2.02 billion) in cash, helping the business tech group expand its capacity to deliver voice, video and data over IP networks.

"The combination of Oracle and Acme Packet is expected to accelerate the migration to all-IP networks by enabling secure and reliable communications from any device, across any network," the companies said in a statement on Monday.

"Users are increasingly connected and expect to communicate anytime and anywhere using their application, device, and network of choice."

Oracle president Mark Hurd said the acquisition "will enable service providers and enterprises to deliver innovative solutions that will change the way we interact, conduct commerce, deliver healthcare, secure our homes, and much more".

Oracle agreed to pay $29.25 per share in cash for the deal, which has been approved by the Acme board but needs shareholder and regulatory approval.

Acme has some 1925 customers in 109 countries including 51 companies in the Fortune 100.

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New Archbishop of Canterbury takes office

THE new Archbishop of Canterbury has formally taken office at a ceremony in St Paul's Cathedral.

Justin Welby, the former Bishop of Durham, was confirmed as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury at a service under the dome of the cathedral attended by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, and seven other senior Church of England bishops.

The ancient ceremony forms part of the legal process for appointing a new Archbishop of Canterbury and will be followed by Welby's enthronement at Canterbury Cathedral next month.

Welby, 57, succeeds Rowan Williams, who left after a decade in office at the end of December to take up a new post as Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Sentamu, who preached at the service, said: "Archbishop Justin Welby brings many gifts to the office of Archbishop of Canterbury.

"He has my prayers and my support as he assumes this challenging role in the service of the Church of England and of the Anglican Communion worldwide."

During the ceremony, Welby took the oath of allegiance to the Queen and made a formal written declaration of assent to his election as Archbishop of Canterbury.

The service heard prayers for Welby, his wife Caroline and their five children, that they may find "joy" in their new home.

The ceremony was attended by the bishops of Norwich, Leicester, Lincoln, Rochester, Winchester, Salisbury and London.

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Spain bank clean-up at 'advanced stage'

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Spain's reforms under its financial sector support program are close to being complete and the clean-up of its weakest banks is well advanced.

"The program remains on track: the clean-up of undercapitalised banks has reached an advanced stage, and key reforms of Spain's financial sector framework have been either adopted or designed," the IMF said on Monday.

In a monitoring mission report, the IMF said most of the measures required of Spain under the European Commission's 100 billion euro ($A132 billion) support program for its devastated banking sector have been completed.

"This clean-up is a major achievement that should strengthen confidence in the system and improve its ability to support the real economy," the Fund said.

But the IMF, which was recruited to monitor progress of the EC program, which was launched last July, warned that remaining elements of the recapitalisation program need to be completed, "and in ways that minimise taxpayer costs".

"Going forward, it will be important to maintain this momentum with strong completion of initiated reforms and continued vigilant oversight."

The Fund warned that the financial system was still exposed to important risks while the economy remains weak and the government undertakes more austerity efforts to close its deficit.

In January the Bank of Spain said the country's banks, ravaged by a collapse of the property sector, held 191.6 billion euros worth of bad or doubtful loans, nearly 11.4 per cent of all credit extended.

The IMF cited also the "important progress" that came with the set-up of SAREB, the recently formed 'bad bank' that will take on the lenders' soured assets.

SAREB has already taken in real estate assets from the weakest Spanish banks, but the IMF said it still needed a comprehensive long-term business plan as well as firm implementation of its standards for servicing the bad loans, so that its own capital remains strong.

The IMF report came as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was under fresh pressure to resign over corruption allegations levelled at his ruling Popular Party.

The scandal has infuriated Spaniards, millions of whom are still struggling to find work in an ongoing recession with the highest jobless rate, at 26 per cent, since the return of democracy in 1975.

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Cambodia mourns as king cremated

CAMBODIANS have bid goodbye with tears, chanting and fireworks to former King Norodom Sihanouk, their revered King-Father who led them through half a century of political tumult that took them into the abyss of genocidal Khmer Rouge rule and back out again.

Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians thronged the capital on Monday for the elaborate royal cremation of the maddening mercurial leader whose charm often overshadowed missteps that to most of his countrymen have faded away in a fog of nostalgia for a simpler time.

Sihanouk's elaborate funeral rites - mingling Hindu, Buddhist and animist traditions - were last seen 53 years ago with the death of his father, King Norodom Suramarit. And they may never be seen again in a rapidly modernising country where the monarchy has lost much of its power and glamour.

After sunset, Sihanouk's son King Norodom Sihamoni and widow, Queen Mother Norodom Monineath, both weeping, ignited the funeral pyre inside a temple-like, 15-storey-high crematorium. Howitzers fired salvos and fireworks lit up the sky when they exited about half-an-hour later.

After the cremation, Sihamoni handed out gifts to some 400 prisoners he had earlier pardoned as part of the mourning for his father, who he said was "in heaven, near the Lord Buddha, forever".

The cremation took place within a walled compound where 90 Buddhist monks - one for each year of Sihanouk's life as counted by Cambodians - chanted around the flower-decked, gilt coffin. Only the country's elite and foreign dignitaries were allowed inside the cremation ground, along with courtiers dressed in pantaloons and soldiers in 19th century-style uniforms with spiked helmets and swords.

Sihanouk's body had been lying in state since he died of a heart attack in Beijing on October 15 at the age of 89.

The cremation was the climax of seven days of official mourning for Sihanouk, who was placed on the throne by the French as a teenager. Instead of proving the puppet the colonials had hoped for, Sihanouk went on to win independence, then rule the country both as monarch and head of state until ousted in a 1970 coup. Internationally, he was a leading member of the non-aligned movement and heightened his small country's profile in the world.

A prideful Sihanouk sided with the Khmer Rouge against the US-backed government, but after the victory of the ultra-communists in 1975, he and his wife were held prisoners in the palace. Five of his children died during the reign of terror.

A consummate survivor, Sihanouk emerged as a leader of an insurgency fighting a Phnom Penh government installed by the Vietnamese and went on to broker a peace accord that enabled his return to the throne in 1993.

He abdicated 11 years later in favour of Sihamoni, a 59-year-old former ballet dancer who had spent most of his life in European artistic circles and has proven a low-keyed constitutional monarch overshadowed by strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Sihanouk's dark side, particularly his cooperation with the Khmer Rouge and his often brutal suppression of dissent, has been publicly ignored as loudspeakers broadcast eulogies and television stations show old clips of Sihanouk's triumphs and ebullient personality.

A larger-than-life character, Sihanouk directed films, composed music and led his own jazz band and palace soccer team. His appetite extended to fast cars, food and women, marrying at least five times, some say six, and fathering 14 children.

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S Africa hikes farm worker pay by 52%

SOUTH Africa has raised farm workers' basic salary by more than 50 per cent after violent strikes in the fruit-growing Cape region in the south, the labour minister has announced.

Mildred Oliphant announced the new minimum daily wage will "be pegged at 105 rand ($A11.35) per day" from March, rising from 69 rand per day.

"I would urge organised business and labour in the agricultural sector to use this opportunity to come together to find ways of improving labour relations in their sector," Oliphant said.

Organised agriculture warned the 52 per cent hike will force job cuts in the sector that employs approximately 700,000 people.

"What's going to happen now is that with the increase of labour costs we will actually go to a point now where we will shed surplus labour on the farms," said Carl Opperman of the Agri-Wes Cape, the regional commercial farmers union.

Workers went on strike in November over demands their basic pay be increased to 150 rands per day, described by farmers as unaffordable, which spread to several towns and killed three people.

The unrest in towns near Cape Town saw vineyards, property and vehicles torched and sparked several clashes with police firing rubber bullets.

A non-government report on the industry found the average wage on farms was around 85 rand and that if it increased to more than 105 rand, many farms would would be unable to pay operating expenses.

It also found that a wage of 150 rand would not provide the nutritional needs of workers.

The Food and Allied Workers Union described the raise as a "short term victory" for the workers, adding they will continue the fight for a bigger minimum wage.

"This raise of over 50 per cent, by the department of labour, is a meaningful step towards obtaining a living wage for farm workers," the Food and Allied Workers Union said in a statement.

"We will, however, fearlessly continue to push for higher wages in the sector, with the clarion call for a R150 per day minimum as our mandate."

The wage hike comes on the heels of hefty wage increases won in the mining sector after the industry was rocked by wildcat strikes in which more than 50 people were killed.

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Sri Lanka leader rules out Tamil autonomy

SRI Lanka's president has ruled out giving Tamils greater political autonomy, appearing to back away from his long-stalled promise to empower the ethnic minority as part of the country's reconciliation process following a bloody civil war.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa made his about-face despite growing international pressure to compromise with the defeated minority and to investigate allegations of war crimes.

Sri Lanka is expected to face questions from the UN Human Rights Council in March on its progress in implementing its own war commission report, which also recommends investigating alleged human rights violations and giving autonomy to Tamils.

The United States has said it will sponsor a resolution at the council for a second straight year on the implementation of the war commission report.

The pressure comes nearly four years after the government, dominated by the ethnic Sinhalese majority, defeated the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, who had been demanding an independent Tamil nation after decades of perceived discrimination. According to a United Nations' estimate, 80,000 to 100,000 people were killed during the war, which ended in 2009, but other reports suggest it could be much higher.

"When the people live together in unity there are no racial or religious differences," Rajapaksa said in his independence day speech on Monday.

"Therefore, it is not practical for this country to have different administrations based on ethnicity. The solution is to live together in this country with equal rights for all communities," he said.

Rajapaksa has long promised the United Nations and other countries that he would offer power sharing as an alternative to secession.

Rajapaksa in his speech called on the international community not to believe in propaganda and to visit Sri Lanka to see the country's human rights record.

Meanwhile, the main ethnic Tamil political party said in a statement that the UN Human Rights Council must take "stern action" against the Sri Lankan government, saying it has not been sincere in investigating abuses and sharing power.

Talks between the government and Tamil National Alliance have stalled for more than a year, and the party says the government is militarising the north and settling majority ethnic Sinhalese.

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