Global growth not so spritely: IMF

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expecting a more gradual upturn in global economic growth during 2013 than forecast three months ago.

But it says policy actions in Europe and the United States have lowered the acute risk of a broader crisis.

In its World Economic Outlook Update released in Washington on Wednesday, the IMF says it is now forecasting global growth of 3.3 per cent this year, down 0.1 percentage point from a projection made in October, and after a 3.2 per cent expansion in 2012.

"A further strengthening to 4.1 per cent is projected for 2014, assuming recovery takes a firm hold in the euro area economy," the global agency says.

"If crisis risks do not materialise and financial conditions continue to improve, global growth could even be stronger than forecast."

However, significant downside risks remain, with the euro area continuing to pose the biggest threat if the reform momentum there is not maintained and causes a prolonged stagnation in the zone.

The IMF has downgraded the near term outlook for Europe to a continued 0.2 per cent recession, instead of expanding 0.2 per cent in 2013.

It says most advanced economies face two challenges - steady and sustained fiscal consolidation, and continued financial sector reform to decrease risks in the financial system.

"In the United States, the priority is to avoid excessive fiscal consolidation in the short term, promptly raise the debt ceiling, and agree on a credible medium-term fiscal consolidation plan, focused on entitlement and tax reform," the IMF said.

Advanced economies are expected to grow 1.4 per cent in 2013, rather than 1.6 per cent.

There was no specific mention of Australia in the report, but under the "other advanced economies" umbrella, the 2013 growth forecast has been downgraded 2.7 per cent from three per cent.

It says Australia's number one trading partner, China, must continue structural reforms and rebalance the economy toward private consumption to ensure sustained rapid growth.

At the same time, while Japan - Australia's second largest partner - has slid into recession, the IMF expects stimulus to boost growth in the near term.

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IMF outlook cause for optimism: Swan

THE latest International Monetary Fund global economic update underscores the remarkable resilience of the Australian economy, Treasurer Wayne Swan says.

The IMF is predicting a more gradual upturn in global economic growth during 2013 than forecast three months ago.

In its World Economic Outlook Update released in Washington on Wednesday, the fund says it is now forecasting global growth of 3.3 per cent this year, down 0.1 percentage point from a projection made in October.

But it says policy actions in Europe and the United States have lowered the acute risk of a broader crisis.

Mr Swan says the IMF has painted a picture of cautious optimism for the global recovery in 2013.

"The IMF's update to its global economic outlook underscores the remarkable resilience of the Australian economy throughout this acute and prolonged global economic volatility - from which obviously we are not immune as we can see from the significant hit to budget revenues," he said in a statement.

Australia has already recorded 21 consecutive years of growth, he said.

"While patchy conditions persist in some sectors, Australia's economic fundamentals put our country in a strong position to weather ongoing global uncertainty and maximise the opportunities ahead in the Asian Century."

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Iraq suicide bomb at mosque kills 42

A SUICIDE bomber made his way into a Shi'ite mosque north of Baghdad and blew himself up in the middle of a packed funeral on Wednesday, killing 42 people and leaving corpses scattered across the floor.

The attack, the deadliest in six months, is likely to heighten tensions as Iraq grapples with a political crisis and more than a month of protests in Sunni-majority areas that have hardened opposition to Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

No group claimed responsibility, but Sunni militants often launch attacks in a bid to destabilise the government and push Iraq back towards the sectarian violence that blighted it from 2005 to 2008.

The bomber struck at the Sayid al-Shuhada mosque in Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, and targeted the funeral of a relative of a politician who was shot dead a day earlier.

"Corpses are on the ground of the Husseiniyah (Shi'ite mosque)," said Shallal Abdul, mayor of Tuz Khurmatu. "The suicide bomber managed to enter and blow himself up in the middle of the mourners."

Niyazi Moamer Oghlu, secretary general of the provincial council of Salaheddin, which surrounds Tuz Khurmatu, put the toll from the attack at 42 dead and 75 wounded.

Among those hurt were officials and tribal leaders, including Ali Hashem Oghlu, the deputy chief of the Iraqi Turkman Front and a provincial councillor in Salaheddin.

The funeral had been for Oghlu's brother-in-law, who killed in Tuz on Tuesday.

Tuz Khurmatu lies in a tract of disputed territory that Kurdistan wants to incorporate into its autonomous three-province region against the wishes of the central government in Baghdad.

The row is regarded by diplomats and officials as the greatest long-term threat to Iraq's stability.

The death toll from Wednesday's blast was the highest from a single attack since a series of bombings north of Baghdad on July 23 killed 42 people.

Also on Wednesday, gunmen killed a school principal near the main northern city of Mosul and an anti-al-Qaeda militiaman was shot dead near the predominantly Sunni town of Fallujah.

Wednesday's violence came after a wave of attacks on Tuesday killed 26 people and wounded dozens more.

That broke four days of relative calm following a spate of incidents claimed by al-Qaeda's front group that killed at least 88 people on January 15-17, according to an AFP tally.

The militant group is widely seen as weaker than during the peak of Iraq's sectarian bloodshed, but is still capable of carrying out mass-casualty attacks on a regular basis.

The latest wave of violence means the overall death toll from bloodshed in Iraq this month has already surpassed that of any of the previous three months, according to an AFP tally based on reports from security and medical officials.

Attacks in Iraq are down from their peak in 2006-2007, but they are still common across the country.

The unrest comes amid a political crisis that has pitted Maliki against several of his erstwhile government partners, less than three months before provincial elections.

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Ex-cyclone Peta crosses Pilbara coast

A CYCLONE warning for parts of West Australia's Pilbara Coast has been cancelled, after ex-Tropical Cyclone Peta weakened late on Wednesday.

The Category 1 cyclone weakened rapidly after crossing the Pilbara coast just to the east of Point Samson at around 4pm (WST) on Wednesday, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) in Western Australia said.

While further gales were not expected to hit the region, heavy rainfall was predicted for the area south of Karratha overnight with squally thunderstorms also possible.

A severe weather warning and a flood watch was issued overnight for the Pilbara.

It comes after mining giant Rio Tinto closed its Cape Lambert facility at Port Walcott and Dampier port on Tuesday in preparation for the wild weather.

It expects most of its coastal operations to resume on Thursday morning but the resumption of ship loading will depend on prevailing sea conditions.

Although the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Peta could move back off the west Pilbara coast later in the week, it was not expected to redevelop into a tropical cyclone, the BoM said.

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Victoria braces for a scorcher

VICTORIAN firefighters and rural communities are bracing for a horror day with the temperature set to reach a maximum 36 degrees as emergency services continue to battle to contain two massive bushfires.

A blaze in Gippsland covering 60,000 hectares has already destroyed homes while a fire at Harrietville near Mount Feathertop in the state's northeast is threatening towns and ski resorts.

Forecast high temperatures and volatile winds, along with a plentiful dry fuel load, means there is also a risk of grassfires breaking out in central Victoria around Castlemaine, Maryborough and Avoca, and in the west between Horsham and Warrnambool.

Authorities have declared a total fire ban in the southwest district of the state.

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said about 300km of containment lines had been established around the entire Gippsland blaze.

A northeasterly wind is predicted to change to a northwesterly late on Thursday, which could threaten the Maffra district, Coongulla and Newry.

A southwesterly wind change is expected late on Thursday night or early Friday morning.

At the ski resort of Falls Creek residents are on a Watch and Act alert and have been told that a change of wind direction overnight could send a fire towards the village.

Mr Lapsley said people in these areas should be aware for the potential of the fires to spread and the importance of keeping up to date with local warnings and advice.

Falls Creek local Debbie Howie told AAP that off-mountain employees who live at Mt Beauty have been told not to come to work on Thursday.

The village's annual Australia Day dragon boat races on Rocky Valley Lake have been cancelled.

She said there are a couple of hundred people at the resort as well as a team of well-trained locals who make up the local CFA unit who will be called on to defend lives and property if the bushfire makes up the mountain.

Neighbouring Mt Hotham is also in the firing line in the event of a wind change.

Wind speed and wind direction will be the key with the potential for embers to be carried ahead of the main fire front.

"The fire has the potential to travel in three different ways if it does break containment lines," Mr Lapsley said.

"It could be embers dropping from the sky that sees new fires start."

Victoria Police have been refining night evacuation plans with text alerts set to be to be sent out to communities before people would usually go to bed.

Mr Lapsley said wildfires at night carry a lot of difficulties.

"The option of leaving and not being there if you've got the potential of fire moving around in your environment at night, I would suggest one of the best options is not to be there," he said.

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Steady rise in govt data requests: Google

GOOGLE has reported a "steady increase" in government requests to hand over data from internet users in the second half of 2012.

The web giant's semiannual "transparency report" showed the most requests came from the United States, with 8,438 requests for information about 14,868 users.

India was second with 2,431 requests for data about 4,106 users, followed by France, where Google received 1,693 requests for information about 2,063 users. Germany, Britain and Brazil rounded out the top six, Google said on Wednesday.

"The steady increase in government requests for our users' data continued in the second half of 2012, as usage of our services continued to grow," said Richard Salgado, Google's head of law enforcement and information security.

"User data requests of all kinds have increased by more than 70 per cent since 2009," he said in a blog posting.

"In total, we received 21,389 requests for information about 33,634 users from July through December 2012."

Google said it supplied at least some of the requested data in 68 per cent of cases, down from 76 per cent in late 2010.

In releasing details of requests in the United States, Google said 68 per cent of the requests it received from government entities were through subpoenas, which "are the easiest to get because they typically don't involve judges," according to Salgado.

Another 22 per cent were through search warrants, mostly issued by judges when there is "probable cause" related to a crime.

Google provided at least some data in 90 per cent of the requests in the United States in late 2012, compared with 94 per cent two years earlier.

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Iraq's Aziz depressed, wants Pope's help

TAREQ Aziz, the late Saddam Hussein's ailing former deputy premier now on death row, is suffering from depression and plans to ask the Pope to call for his speedy execution, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Badie Aref said Aziz, a Christian, believed he was being treated well in prison, but was suffering from ill health and simply wanted an end to his "misery."

"He is in total depression," Aref told AFP by telephone after meeting with Aziz earlier on Wednesday.

The lawyer said Aziz had told him: "I will now write an appeal to the Pope. Even though I have never met him in person, I will call for him to end my misery, because I would prefer to be executed rather than stay in this condition."

Aziz, a close confidante of now-executed dictator Saddam, was sentenced to death in October 2010 after having been found guilty of "deliberate murder and crimes against humanity."

The Vatican, the European Union and several Western governments have called on Baghdad for clemency.

Aziz has been in prison since surrendering in April 2003, days after the fall of Baghdad in the US-led invasion of Iraq.

His family has repeatedly called for his release on health grounds, particularly after he suffered a heart attack in late 2007.

He also suffers from high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes and ulcers.

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Mali army accused of summary killings

A LEADING rights group accused Malian soldiers on Wednesday of summary killings and serious abuses in the course of a French-led assault against al-Qaeda-linked groups, as concerns rose over the conflict's civilian toll.

Japan, which lost seven citizens in a deadly Islamist backlash in neighbouring Algeria against the French-led offensive, decided on Wednesday to close its embassy in Bamako citing a deteriorating security situation.

Nearly two weeks after France swept to Mali's aid to stop an Islamist advance towards the capital Bamako, reports emerged of atrocities committed by Malian soldiers and growing fears of attacks among light-skinned ethnic communities.

The majority of the al-Qaeda-linked rebels being hunted by the armies are either Tuaregs or Arabs.

The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) said that in the central town of Sevare at least 11 people were executed in a military camp near the bus station and the town's hospital, citing evidence gathered by local researchers.

Credible reports also pointed to around 20 other people having been executed in the same area and the bodies having been dumped in wells or otherwise disposed of, the organisation said.

At Nioro, in the west of the country close to the border with Mauritania, two Malian Tuaregs were executed by Malian soldiers, according to the FIDH.

The organisation called for an immediate independent inquiry commission to "determine the scale of the abuses and to punish the perpetrators."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has hailed France's "courageous" intervention but expressed fears over the safety of humanitarian workers and UN employees on the ground.

The tense security situation, heightened after the cross border attack in Algeria which left 37 hostages dead, prompted Japan to shut its embassy and evacuate key staff.

"After the French military advance the already unstable situation in Mali worsened further," foreign ministry spokesman Yutaka Yokoi told reporters in Tokyo.

On the ground French and Malian troops were due to sweep the outskirts of towns recently recaptured from the al-Qaeda-linked rebels for landmines they suspect the extremists left as they fled an air and ground assault by the armies.

France said it had already 2300 soldiers in the west African nation, whose poorly-trained and under equipped force has been overwhelmed by Islamist rebels occupying the vast arid north since April and seeking to push south.

The former colonial power has said its troops will eventually hand over control to a UN-mandated West African force of more than 4000 troops to be boosted by 2000 men from Chad.

The fallout from the war, which experts have warned could be drawn out and complex, is causing concerns.

The UN refugee agency estimates up to a million people could have fled their homes in coming months, and rights bodies have warned of the dire situation faced by those escaping fighting.

There are also increasing reports of attacks on light-skinned Tuareg or Arabs from Malian security forces.

"Here, if you wear a turban, have a beard and wear a Tuareg robe, you are threatened," said a shopowner in Segou, a town some 270 kilometres northeast of Bamako. "It has become very dangerous for us since this war started."

Malian army chief General Ibrahima Dahirou Dembele promised that any soldier involved in abuses would be brought to book.

Mali's year-long crisis began when Tuaregs returning from fighting Gaddafi's war in Libya, battle-hardened and with a massive arsenal, took up a decades-old rebellion for independence of the north which they call Azawad.

They allied with hardline Islamists amid a political vacuum in Bamako after a March coup, and seized the key towns of Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu in a matter of days.

The Islamists later broke with their Tuareg allies, and with firm control of the north, implemented an extreme form of Islamic law.

The occupation sparked fears abroad that the vast northern half of the country could become a new Afghanistan-like haven for al-Qaeda.

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