Syria military police chief defects to opposition

SYRIA'S military police chief has announced his defection from President Bashar al-Assad's regime, accusing the army of having turned into "murderous gangs," in a video posted online.

"I, General Abdel Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, commander of Syrian military police, announce that I am defecting from the regime army, to join the people's revolution," the military-clad officer said.

"The army has deviated from its essential mission, which is to protect the country, and it has morphed into murderous, destructive gangs," General Shallal charged in the video circulated by opposition activists.

"The destruction of cities and villages, and the commission of massacres against our people, defenceless civilians, who took to the streets calling for freedom" prompted Shallal to defect, he said.

General Shallal, whose functions are limited to disciplining soldiers, is not a well-known figure.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited sources close to General Shallal as saying he was set to retire in January, and its head Rami Abdel Rahman said he has already left Syria, like many other senior military defectors.

According to reports on online platforms, he left Syria for Turkey.

"This man was pushed to the sidelines a long time ago," one Syrian activist said online, adding that General Shallal was "suspected of collaborating with insurgents."

General Shallal "withdrew military police checkpoints from the roads, and he was good to people," another activist wrote online.

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Syria deputy FM travels to Moscow

THE Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faisal Muqdad, was headed for Moscow, an airport source in Beirut told AFP, amid reports of a US-Russian initiative for a transition in Syria.

The Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faisal Muqdad, was headed for Moscow, an airport source in Beirut said, amid reports of a US-Russian initiative for a transition in Syria.

"Accompanied by foreign ministry official Ahmed Arnus, Muqdad's Aeroflot flight to Moscow took off from Beirut airport at midnight (2200 GMT)" Tuesday, the airport source said, on condition of anonymity.

French daily Le Figaro has reported that the new initiative would see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad staying in power until 2014 while preventing him from further renewing his mandate.

Mr Muqdad's visit to Moscow comes as UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi visits Syria in a bid to persuade the warring parties to negotiate an end to the conflict in which monitors say 45,000 people have been killed.

Mr Brahimi himself is to hold talks in Moscow on Saturday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency. The foreign ministry said Mr Brahimi had requested the meeting.

The UN-Arab League envoy met with Assad on Monday and a day later with three opposition groups tolerated by the regime, but diplomats say he has so far made little headway.

On December 6, Mr Brahimi met in Dublin with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss possible solutions to the Syrian crisis.

No details of the Dublin discussion have been released.

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UAE busts Saudi-Emirati 'terror' cell

UAE authorities have announced busting a cell of Saudi and Emirati members plotting "terror" attacks in the two countries and other states.

The suspects "imported material and equipment with the aim of committing terror acts," said an official statement on WAM state news agency. The arrests came after coordination between security authorities in the two Gulf states.

The suspects were described as members of the "deviant group," a term usually used in Saudi Arabia to refer to al-Qaida-linked Islamists.

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Tube strike can't stop London shoppers

STRIKE action has heavily disrupted London's Underground train network, as hundreds of thousands of bargain hunters headed to the shops for the traditional Boxing Day sales.

All 13 of the Tube lines were running a reduced service after just a third of drivers turned up for work in a dispute between the Aslef union and the network operators over payments for working on public holidays.

Howard Collins, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "This strike action is completely unnecessary.

"Train drivers are paid a salary that reflects some bank holiday working, but the Aslef leadership is demanding to be paid twice for the same work and has rejected our attempts to resolve the matter."

Despite the transport problems, shoppers formed long queues from the early hours of the morning outside London's top department stores including Harrods and Selfridges.

Many of the bargain hunters were Chinese, with Harrods creating a separate queue outside its store in the upmarket district of Knightsbridge for those looking for reductions on designer goods such as Gucci.

Sue West, director of operations at Selfridges, said handbags and menswear were particularly popular items in the sale at its flagship branch on London's main shopping thoroughfare of Oxford Street.

"Of the people queuing to get inside 60 per cent or 70 per cent were men. It's a great day for men's shopping. It's a tradition and people want to experience it," she said.

"Online sales for us have been great but year on year people still want to experience the Boxing Day sales."

British retailers slash prices on the day after Christmas Day, with big-ticket items such as TVs and computers carrying the biggest reductions.

The price comparison site MoneySupermarket.com estimates that shoppers in Britain will spend STG2.9 billion ($4.6 billion) in the sales.

The British Retail Consortium had described high-street spending as "acceptable but not exceptional" during the Christmas period.

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National holiday road toll reaches 17

AUSTRALIA'S national road toll stands at 17 after a man was killed in a single car accident in Western Australia.

Perth Now reports the man died when his car flipped on the North West Coastal Highway at Yannarie, which is about 1200km north of Perth and 200km southeast of Exmouth, about noon (WST) on Wednesday.

Police in WA say the first death on the state's roads happened on Christmas Eve, when a young man died after his car hit a power pole at Esperance, about 720 kilometres southeast of Perth.

Meanwhile, NSW police are pleading for drivers to slow down after accidents on the state's roads left five people dead in one day, including an elderly Fijian couple, who died when their can left the Hume Highway near Holbrook in the state's south and rolled.

Queensland has recorded its first holiday road death after a sedan veered off the Bruce Highway on the state's east coast and rolled early on Wednesday.

The losses take the toll for NSW to six, five people have died on Victoria's roads, and two in South Australia.

One person each has been killed on roads in Queensland and Tasmania.

The Northern Territory and ACT remain fatality-free.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2012, until 2359 January 3, 2013, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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US stocks up ahead of 'fiscal cliff' talks

US stocks have opened slightly higher, as President Barack Obama heads back to Washington to try to secure a year-end "fiscal cliff" deal with Republican lawmakers.

In roughly the first 15 minutes of trade on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 22.59 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 13,161.67.

The broad-market S&P 500 was up 0.99 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 1,427.65.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gained 0.82 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 3,013.42.

"The action today through Friday will be heavily influenced by news on the fiscal cliff negotiations. Underlying that will be support from the traditional year-end bullish bias," said Briefing.com's Dick Green.

"At least for today, it looks like the seasonal support is enough to boost the stock market given the uncertain outlook for the budget negotiations."

On Christmas Eve, the Dow was down 0.39 per cent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.24 per cent and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite shed 0.28 per cent. Markets were closed for Christmas Day.

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Spain seizes 11 tonnes of hashish

SPANISH police have seized 11 tonnes of hashish smuggled from Morocco on trucks with fuel tanks rigged to hide the drugs and arrested 35 people in what has been described as the breakup of a major smuggling ring feeding the European market.

The haul was displayed across a patio outside the headquarters of the National Police, with some hashish packaged in small amounts resembling bars of soap, while much of it was held in suitcases made out of tape and packaging material.

It was described as one of Spain's biggest drug seizures, but officials did not provide details of previous confiscations for comparison purposes.

Authorities said the hashish travelled in trucks that took cargo ferries from Morocco to southern Spain, and were then driven to a Madrid suburb where the hashish was extracted from the vehicles' fuel tanks. From there, some of the hashish was sent to Madrid for sale while the rest was put aboard other trucks carrying legal merchandise to countries including Belgium, Britain, France and Holland.

Those arrested included 31 Moroccans, three Spaniards and a Belgian woman. One of the Spaniards and the Belgian woman were truckers driving rigs with loads of carrots and clothing with the hashish hidden amid the legitimate cargo, National Police chief Ignacio Cosido said.

Cosido declined to put a value on the hashish seized except to say "it's very profitable".

Police in 17 raids also seized numerous bags of marijuana, 150,000 euros ($A190,000) in cash, 14 vehicles valued at 400,000 euros and 109 mobile phones during the course of an eight-month investigation that started when authorities broke up a Madrid hashish selling ring and went after that group's suppliers.

The ring used GPS systems to track the movements of their hashish loads, and the specially designed fuel tanks to hold the drugs were put back together again for reuse after being dismantled, said Jose Luis Conde, who heads the National Police's Madrid division.

Conde declined to say whether the hashish originally came from Morocco, a major producer, saying only that it was from North Africa.

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Oil rises on housing data

THE price of oil is rising sharply on higher US home prices and hopes of a budget deal in Washington.

US benchmark crude jumped $2.31, or 2.6 per cent, to $90.92 a barrel overnight in thin post-Christmas trading.

US home prices rose in most major cities in October compared with a year ago, according to a key report. The improvement is adding to economic growth, which generally boosts energy consumption and lifts prices.

Also, President Barack Obama will return to Washington today after a brief holiday to resume budget talks with Congress. Negotiations are aimed at avoiding the "fiscal cliff," the deep budget cuts and tax increases that could slow US growth.

On Monday, concerns over the budget pushed down oil prices. Benchmark crude closed 5 cents lower at $88.61.

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Syria military police chief defects to opposition

SYRIA'S military police chief has announced his defection from President Bashar al-Assad's regime, accusing the army of having turned into "murderous gangs," in a video posted online.

"I, General Abdel Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, commander of Syrian military police, announce that I am defecting from the regime army, to join the people's revolution," the military-clad officer said.

"The army has deviated from its essential mission, which is to protect the country, and it has morphed into murderous, destructive gangs," General Shallal charged in the video circulated by opposition activists.

"The destruction of cities and villages, and the commission of massacres against our people, defenceless civilians, who took to the streets calling for freedom" prompted Shallal to defect, he said.

General Shallal, whose functions are limited to disciplining soldiers, is not a well-known figure.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited sources close to General Shallal as saying he was set to retire in January, and its head Rami Abdel Rahman said he has already left Syria, like many other senior military defectors.

According to reports on online platforms, he left Syria for Turkey.

"This man was pushed to the sidelines a long time ago," one Syrian activist said online, adding that General Shallal was "suspected of collaborating with insurgents."

General Shallal "withdrew military police checkpoints from the roads, and he was good to people," another activist wrote online.

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Syria deputy FM travels to Moscow

THE Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faisal Muqdad, was headed for Moscow, an airport source in Beirut told AFP, amid reports of a US-Russian initiative for a transition in Syria.

The Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faisal Muqdad, was headed for Moscow, an airport source in Beirut said, amid reports of a US-Russian initiative for a transition in Syria.

"Accompanied by foreign ministry official Ahmed Arnus, Muqdad's Aeroflot flight to Moscow took off from Beirut airport at midnight (2200 GMT)" Tuesday, the airport source said, on condition of anonymity.

French daily Le Figaro has reported that the new initiative would see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad staying in power until 2014 while preventing him from further renewing his mandate.

Mr Muqdad's visit to Moscow comes as UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi visits Syria in a bid to persuade the warring parties to negotiate an end to the conflict in which monitors say 45,000 people have been killed.

Mr Brahimi himself is to hold talks in Moscow on Saturday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency. The foreign ministry said Mr Brahimi had requested the meeting.

The UN-Arab League envoy met with Assad on Monday and a day later with three opposition groups tolerated by the regime, but diplomats say he has so far made little headway.

On December 6, Mr Brahimi met in Dublin with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss possible solutions to the Syrian crisis.

No details of the Dublin discussion have been released.

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UAE busts Saudi-Emirati 'terror' cell

UAE authorities have announced busting a cell of Saudi and Emirati members plotting "terror" attacks in the two countries and other states.

The suspects "imported material and equipment with the aim of committing terror acts," said an official statement on WAM state news agency. The arrests came after coordination between security authorities in the two Gulf states.

The suspects were described as members of the "deviant group," a term usually used in Saudi Arabia to refer to al-Qaida-linked Islamists.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tube strike can't stop London shoppers

STRIKE action has heavily disrupted London's Underground train network, as hundreds of thousands of bargain hunters headed to the shops for the traditional Boxing Day sales.

All 13 of the Tube lines were running a reduced service after just a third of drivers turned up for work in a dispute between the Aslef union and the network operators over payments for working on public holidays.

Howard Collins, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "This strike action is completely unnecessary.

"Train drivers are paid a salary that reflects some bank holiday working, but the Aslef leadership is demanding to be paid twice for the same work and has rejected our attempts to resolve the matter."

Despite the transport problems, shoppers formed long queues from the early hours of the morning outside London's top department stores including Harrods and Selfridges.

Many of the bargain hunters were Chinese, with Harrods creating a separate queue outside its store in the upmarket district of Knightsbridge for those looking for reductions on designer goods such as Gucci.

Sue West, director of operations at Selfridges, said handbags and menswear were particularly popular items in the sale at its flagship branch on London's main shopping thoroughfare of Oxford Street.

"Of the people queuing to get inside 60 per cent or 70 per cent were men. It's a great day for men's shopping. It's a tradition and people want to experience it," she said.

"Online sales for us have been great but year on year people still want to experience the Boxing Day sales."

British retailers slash prices on the day after Christmas Day, with big-ticket items such as TVs and computers carrying the biggest reductions.

The price comparison site MoneySupermarket.com estimates that shoppers in Britain will spend STG2.9 billion ($4.6 billion) in the sales.

The British Retail Consortium had described high-street spending as "acceptable but not exceptional" during the Christmas period.

23.48 | 0 komentar | Read More

National holiday road toll reaches 17

AUSTRALIA'S national road toll stands at 17 after a man was killed in a single car accident in Western Australia.

Perth Now reports the man died when his car flipped on the North West Coastal Highway at Yannarie, which is about 1200km north of Perth and 200km southeast of Exmouth, about noon (WST) on Wednesday.

Police in WA say the first death on the state's roads happened on Christmas Eve, when a young man died after his car hit a power pole at Esperance, about 720 kilometres southeast of Perth.

Meanwhile, NSW police are pleading for drivers to slow down after accidents on the state's roads left five people dead in one day, including an elderly Fijian couple, who died when their can left the Hume Highway near Holbrook in the state's south and rolled.

Queensland has recorded its first holiday road death after a sedan veered off the Bruce Highway on the state's east coast and rolled early on Wednesday.

The losses take the toll for NSW to six, five people have died on Victoria's roads, and two in South Australia.

One person each has been killed on roads in Queensland and Tasmania.

The Northern Territory and ACT remain fatality-free.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2012, until 2359 January 3, 2013, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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US stocks up ahead of 'fiscal cliff' talks

US stocks have opened slightly higher, as President Barack Obama heads back to Washington to try to secure a year-end "fiscal cliff" deal with Republican lawmakers.

In roughly the first 15 minutes of trade on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 22.59 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 13,161.67.

The broad-market S&P 500 was up 0.99 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 1,427.65.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gained 0.82 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 3,013.42.

"The action today through Friday will be heavily influenced by news on the fiscal cliff negotiations. Underlying that will be support from the traditional year-end bullish bias," said Briefing.com's Dick Green.

"At least for today, it looks like the seasonal support is enough to boost the stock market given the uncertain outlook for the budget negotiations."

On Christmas Eve, the Dow was down 0.39 per cent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.24 per cent and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite shed 0.28 per cent. Markets were closed for Christmas Day.

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Spain seizes 11 tonnes of hashish

SPANISH police have seized 11 tonnes of hashish smuggled from Morocco on trucks with fuel tanks rigged to hide the drugs and arrested 35 people in what has been described as the breakup of a major smuggling ring feeding the European market.

The haul was displayed across a patio outside the headquarters of the National Police, with some hashish packaged in small amounts resembling bars of soap, while much of it was held in suitcases made out of tape and packaging material.

It was described as one of Spain's biggest drug seizures, but officials did not provide details of previous confiscations for comparison purposes.

Authorities said the hashish travelled in trucks that took cargo ferries from Morocco to southern Spain, and were then driven to a Madrid suburb where the hashish was extracted from the vehicles' fuel tanks. From there, some of the hashish was sent to Madrid for sale while the rest was put aboard other trucks carrying legal merchandise to countries including Belgium, Britain, France and Holland.

Those arrested included 31 Moroccans, three Spaniards and a Belgian woman. One of the Spaniards and the Belgian woman were truckers driving rigs with loads of carrots and clothing with the hashish hidden amid the legitimate cargo, National Police chief Ignacio Cosido said.

Cosido declined to put a value on the hashish seized except to say "it's very profitable".

Police in 17 raids also seized numerous bags of marijuana, 150,000 euros ($A190,000) in cash, 14 vehicles valued at 400,000 euros and 109 mobile phones during the course of an eight-month investigation that started when authorities broke up a Madrid hashish selling ring and went after that group's suppliers.

The ring used GPS systems to track the movements of their hashish loads, and the specially designed fuel tanks to hold the drugs were put back together again for reuse after being dismantled, said Jose Luis Conde, who heads the National Police's Madrid division.

Conde declined to say whether the hashish originally came from Morocco, a major producer, saying only that it was from North Africa.

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Oil rises on housing data

THE price of oil is rising sharply on higher US home prices and hopes of a budget deal in Washington.

US benchmark crude jumped $2.31, or 2.6 per cent, to $90.92 a barrel overnight in thin post-Christmas trading.

US home prices rose in most major cities in October compared with a year ago, according to a key report. The improvement is adding to economic growth, which generally boosts energy consumption and lifts prices.

Also, President Barack Obama will return to Washington today after a brief holiday to resume budget talks with Congress. Negotiations are aimed at avoiding the "fiscal cliff," the deep budget cuts and tax increases that could slow US growth.

On Monday, concerns over the budget pushed down oil prices. Benchmark crude closed 5 cents lower at $88.61.

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