Ahmadinejad aide replaced as news boss

A TOP aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has been jailed since September has been replaced as the head of Iran's state Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Ali Akbar Javanfekr, who is being held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, was succeeded by another Ahmadinejad adviser, Majid Omidi Shahraki, who led the president's Political and Security Affairs office, IRNA and other media reported on Monday.

Javanfekr was arrested on September 26 - just as Ahmadinejad was giving a speech in New York at the UN General Assembly - and is serving a six-month jail term in Evin.

He has been convicted of publishing material offensive to Islamic codes and public morality by allowing one of the state newspapers under his control to run articles questioning Iran's strict Islamic dress code for women.

Javanfekr and other Ahmadinejad aides have long been targets for Iran's hardline judges and ultra-conservative lawmakers who see them as attempting to undermine religious principles.

Ahmadinejad became locked in a public row with judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani over getting access to Evin prison. He eventually was able to see Javanfekr last month when the aide was briefly taken to hospital for what reports said was a "heart condition".

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) has a network of domestic bureaux and several correspondents in other countries.

Omidi Shahraki is the fifth IRNA head to be named since Ahmadinejad took power in 2005.

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Fire-weary Tasmania faces more anxiety

SEVERE bushfire conditions are predicted to continue in Tasmania, where a man has been accused of starting a 10,000 hectare blaze.

A total fire ban has been declared for Tuesday, with strong northerly winds predicted across the state.

Police said a 31-year-old New Norfolk man would be charged under the Fire Services Act, after leaving his unextinguished campfire unattended last week.

The campfire turned into a massive inferno, which has consumed more than 10,600 hectares and had not been contained on Monday evening.

Over 100 properties have been destroyed since last week, concentrated in the fishing village of Dunalley.

No deaths from the fires have been reported, but emergency services crews are conducting property-to-property searches for human remains.

Police say many people are still unaccounted for.

The focus of the state's efforts turned to the northwest corner on Monday, where a watch and act alert was in place for the residents of Mawbanna.

Similar warnings have been issued for the Lake Repulse and Tasman Peninsula fires.

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Restaurant bill sparks deadly Indian riot

A ROW over an unpaid restaurant bill in a western Indian city has escalated into a riot between Hindus and Muslims that's left four people dead and 175 injured.

The unrest broke out in Dhule in Maharashtra state on Sunday, special inspector-general Deven Bharti told AFP.

Four rioters were killed by police firing while 113 policemen were among the injured, he said.

Bharti said investigations were still under way, but it appeared a quarrel over a restaurant bill had provoked a mass brawl that left shops smashed, motorbikes burned and glass strewn across the streets.

Previous riots between Hindus and Muslims in Dhule broke out in October 2008, leaving 10 dead.

"The restaurant owner was from one community and the customer from the other," Bharti explained, declining to name the parties involved.

"The customer went and took 50 people from his community and assaulted the restaurant owner, and people from the owner's community also gathered and started arsoning and rioting," he said.

Bharti said the police had used sticks, tear gas and plastic bullets before resorting to live ammunition to quell the trouble.

The area was put under a curfew that continued on Monday and was "peaceful and under control", he added.

Hindus make up about 80 per cent of India's population, while some 13 per cent are Muslim.

Sporadic, isolated clashes between the two groups still break out 65 years after the Indian subcontinent was carved into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and secular yet Hindu-majority India after the end of British rule.

India saw mass riots between Hindus and Muslims 20 years ago - triggered when Hindu zealots demolished a mosque in the town of Ayodhya - that left more than 2000 dead, mostly Muslims.

A decade later another 2000 people died in riots between the two groups in Gujarat state.

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Orthodox Patriarch urges Russians to adopt

THE head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has urged Russians to adopt orphans in a Christmas message after Russia banned adoptions by citizens of the United States.

"I would like to talk especially about children in these days," said the Patriarch in a Christmas message posted on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church and broadcast on national television.

The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7 according to the Julian calendar.

"We have a lot of children who don't have parents. Even when their parents are still alive. And how important it is that our people should gladly, with a special feeling of gratitude to God, take orphans into their families.

"As it is Christmas time, I would like to ask everyone who could take an important step in life of adopting orphans, of supporting orphans. Take this step: we should not have orphans in our country," said Kirill.

"Those who don't have parents should find parents among good, honest, caring people."

His statement appeared to respond to wide public dismay at a highly controversial new law signed by President Vladimir Putin last month that bans adoptions by US citizens.

Putin has said that Russia is threatened by "ruin" if the outflow of orphans abroad continues.

US families adopted nearly 1000 Russian children last year and are the number one foreign destination of the country's orphans.

The bill has sparked anger not only among potential adoptive parents but among those who see it as motivated by politics rather than concern for the children.

Pro-Kremlin lawmakers put together the draft legislation in a matter of days in response to a new US law sanctioning Russian officials implicated in the 2009 prison death of the anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

The legislation caused contention even among top officials, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets both publicly expressing opposition.

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US bank in $10bn mortgage settlement

BANK of America Corp says it will spend more than $US10 billion ($A9.5 billion) to settle mortgage claims resulting from the US housing meltdown.

Under the deal announced on Monday, the bank will pay $US3.6 billion ($A3.45 billion) to Fannie Mae and buy back $US6.75 billion in loans that the North Carolina-based bank and its Countrywide banking unit sold to the government agency from January 1, 2000 through December 31, 2008. That includes about 30,000 loans.

CEO Brian Moynihan said the agreements were "a significant step" in resolving the bank's remaining legacy mortgage issues while streamlining the company and reducing future expenses.

Bank of America bought Countrywide Financial Corp in July 2008, just before the financial crisis. Countrywide was a giant in mortgage lending, but was also known for approving risky loans.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which packaged loans into securities and sold them to investors, were effectively nationalised in 2008 when they nearly collapsed under the weight of their mortgage losses.

Bank of America's purchase of Countrywide originally was lauded by lawmakers because the bank was viewed as stepping in to eliminate a bad actor from the mortgage market. But instead of padding Bank of America's mortgage business, the purchase has drawn a drumbeat of regulatory fines, lawsuits and losses.

Bank of America said the loans involved in the settlement have an aggregate original principal balance of about $US1.4 trillion. The outstanding principal balance is about $US300 billion.

"Fannie Mae has diligently pursued repurchases on loans that did not meet our standards at the time of origination, and we are pleased to have reached an appropriate agreement to collect on these repurchase requests," Bradley Lerman, Fannie Mae executive vice-president and general counsel, said in a statement.

Bank of America said it is also selling mortgage servicing rights on about two million residential mortgage loans. The loans have an aggregate unpaid principal balance of approximately $US306 billion.

The transferring of the servicing rights is expected to take place throughout the year.

In addition, the bank will pay $US1.3 billion to Fannie Mae to settle loan servicing compensatory fee obligations.

Bank of America said its fourth-quarter will include various items related to the settlement and other matters, but that it expects "modestly positive" earnings for the period.

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Air France launches low-cost flights

FRENCH airline Air France has launched an offensive to compete with low-cost carriers, offering flights from four French hubs to 58 destinations in Europe and around the Mediterranean at fares starting from 49 euros ($A62) for passengers who travel with carry-on baggage.

"Air France aims to adapt to the changes in purchasing behaviour and the new expectations of travellers, while at the same time attracting new customers," it said in a statement.

It said that the program was aimed at the 60 per cent of clients for whom the lowest price was the most important factor.

The new offer is part of a restructuring plan presented a year ago which is designed to save Air France two billion euros by 2015, chairman Alexandre de Juniac told a news conference on Monday.

Low-cost tickets went on sale on Monday for flights beginning on February 6, and were expressly "aimed at clients who might be tempted by low-cost airlines", de Juniac said.

Although the group posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results in late October, it is under severe financial and cost-cutting pressures and is trying to fight against competition from budget European carriers such as EasyJet and Ryanair.

The new fares, which apply to flights from Orly airport south of Paris and growing Air France regional low-cost hubs in Marseille, Nice and Toulouse in southern France, "are a long-term offer" according to the airline's deputy director at Orly, Florence Parly.

Air France has found through a study that on short and medium-haul flights, 40 per cent of its passengers do not check in bags at present.

The so-called MiNi offer, which does not include frequent-flier credits, is not limited to a specific time period, but customers who buy tickets will have to pay a surcharge if they subsequently seek to check in luggage, and cannot request specific seats via the airline's website.

The fares also complement a strategy by Air France-KLM simultaneously to raise standards for passengers who pay more for business and "Premium Economy" seats.

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UK far-right leader jailed over passport

THE leader of the far-right English Defence League (EDL) has been jailed for 10 months by a British court for using a friend's passport to travel to the United States.

Stephen Lennon, 30, whose group opposes what it calls the "Islamisation" of Britain, pleaded guilty to possession of a false identity document with improper intention.

Lennon had previously been refused entry to the United States and so used a passport in the name of his friend Andrew McMaster to travel to the country, Southwark Crown Court in London heard.

He used a self check-in kiosk to board a Virgin Atlantic flight from London's Heathrow airport to New York in September 2012.

But when Lennon arrived at New York's John F Kennedy airport US customs officials took his fingerprints and realised that he was not the person on the passport, the court heard.

He was asked to attend a second interview but left the airport, entering the US illegally, before leaving the country the following day using his own passport.

British police arrested Lennon in October.

In a further twist it emerged Lennon's own legitimate passport bears the name Paul Harris.

"You knew perfectly well that you were not welcome in the United States," Judge Alistair McCreath told Lennon as he sentenced him on Monday.

"I am going to sentence you under the name of Stephen Lennon although I suspect that is not actually your true name, in the sense that it is not the name that appears on your passport."

The court heard Lennon was previously jailed for assault in 2005 and has previous convictions for drugs offences and public order offences.

The EDL was formed in 2009 after Muslim hardliners jeered a homecoming parade for British troops who had served in Afghanistan. It has held a series of sometimes violent rallies in Britain.

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22 killed in wave of Iraq attacks

A WAVE of bombings and shootings across Iraq has killed 22 people as the country grapples with anti-government rallies and simmering political crises ahead of major Shi'ite commemoration rituals.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks in more than a dozen towns and cities that wounded 83 people, but Sunni militants such as al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq regularly target officials and security forces in a bid to destabilise the government, and also often attack Shi'ite pilgrims.

The violence comes after anti-government protesters blocked a key highway to Syria and Jordan, amid political tensions between Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and a secular Sunni-backed party in his fragile national unity government.

Much of Monday's violence targeted Shi'ite pilgrims, ahead of Arbaeen commemoration ceremonies due this week.

In the deadliest attack, seven people - three women, two children and two men - were killed when three houses were blown up in the town of Mussayib, south of Baghdad, police and a medic said. Four others were wounded.

The victims were apparently targeted because they were Shi'ites, the officials said.

Shi'ite pilgrims embarking on the traditional walk to the holy shrine city of Karbala for Arbaeen commemorations were hit by three mortar strikes south of Baghdad that killed one worshipper and wounded nine others.

A series of attacks in restive Diyala province, north of Baghdad, wounded 19 people, including 10 Shi'ite pilgrims who were walking to Karbala.

Attacks in Baghdad and north of the city, meanwhile, killed 12 people.

In the capital's central commercial district of Karrada, a car bomb detonated by a suicide attacker left at least four dead and 20 others wounded, security and medical officials said.

A series of bombings in the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk and nearby towns killed five policemen and wounded 11 other people, local officials said.

And in the main northern city of Mosul, two policemen guarding an election centre were gunned down, while one policeman was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb in Tuz Khurmatu.

South of Baghdad, a car bombing outside government offices killed two people as the provincial governor was arriving.

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Venezuela axes New Year's with Chavez sick

VENEZUELA has called off public New Year's Eve festivities and social media sizzled with worry after the government revealed cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez had taken a turn for the worse.

The streets of Caracas were quiet as front-page headlines relayed that Chavez had developed "new complications" from a respiratory infection after undergoing his fourth cancer-related surgery on December 11 in Havana.

His vice-president and political heir, Nicolas Maduro, broke the news from Havana on Sunday night, saying the condition of the Venezuelan leader was delicate and that he faced an uphill battle.

Chavez, the face of the Latin American left for more than a decade and a firebrand critic of what he calls US imperialism, has been in power since 1999 in Venezuela, an OPEC member that sits on top of the world's largest proven oil reserves.

For many Venezuelans, a holiday season without their ubiquitous comandante just wasn't the same.

"I do not know what will happen to Chavez, but we have never had a Christmas like this. Only God knows what will happen with him and with us," said 70-year-old retiree Miguel Enrique as he prepared to attend Mass.

Authorities cancelled a New Year's eve concert in a downtown plaza and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas urged "families in Caracas and Venezuela in general to ring in the New Year at home, praying and expressing hope for the health" of Chavez.

On Twitter, hashtags translating into expressions such as "Chavez will live and conquer" and "I love Chavez" were all the rage.

But Chavez is also deeply polarising, even though he has ruled for nearly 14 years, and his detractors spoke out too.

Chavez, 58, won another six-year term in October's presidential election, and is scheduled to be sworn in on January 10.

But his ill health has raised concerns that he won't be well enough to attend his inauguration.

Chavez's government has said that the inauguration can be postponed if the president is not fit enough to be sworn in.

Not so, said Veppex, a Miami-based association of 25,000 Venezuelans living outside their country as refugees or political exiles.

It insisted the constitution must be respected verbatim and that new elections must be held within 30 days if Chavez cannot be sworn in on the scheduled day. It said all signs were that he will not be.

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Nine shot dead during party

NINE people have been shot and killed in a rural village in northwest Colombia, apparently during a party, a police official has said.

None of the four women and five men who were slain have been identified, no suspects have been arrested and authorities have no idea what the motive of the killings might be, said Yesid Vasquez, police chief for Antioquia department.

He said the victims were apparently celebrating in a rented villa in Envigado, near Medellin, when they were shot.

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