Chopper crash kills 17 soldiers

A TURKISH military helicopter carrying soldiers on a mission against Kurdish rebels crashed because of bad weather, killing all 17 troops onboard, officials said.

Thirteen soldiers and four military crewmembers were killed in the crash in a mountainous part of Pervari district in Siirt province, in southeastern Turkey, where the rebel Kurdistan Worker's Party is fighting for self-rule.

President Abdullah Gul said the soldiers were on their way "to help their friends" in an operation against the rebels who have escalated attacks in recent months, adding the incident would not deter Turkey from its determination to fight the rebels.

The provincial governor, Ahmet Aydin, blamed the crash on heavy fog and ruled out an attack by the rebel group.

"The weather during the transportation (of troops) was bad. There was extreme rain. The helicopter crashed into rocks because of the fog," Mr Aydin said in televised statements.

"The incident was the result of a crash and any kind of an attack is out of the question."

The Kurdish rebels have been fighting since the 1980s and they seek more rights for Kurds, including autonomy in the mostly Kurdish southeast of the country. Turkey and its Western allies categorise the rebels, known by the acronym PKK, as a terrorist group.

Several days ago, Turkish media reported that Turkish soldiers were airlifted into northern Iraq for a brief operation against suspected rebels, who have bases there.

There were no reports of casualties on that mission. Turkey periodically carries out artillery and air strikes on PKK positions in northern Iraq, but reports of cross-border incursions by troops are rare.

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Turkish helicopter crashes killing 17

A TURKISH military helicopter carrying soldiers on a mission against Kurdish rebels has crashed because of bad weather, killing all 17 troops aboard, officials say.

Thirteen soldiers and four military crewmembers were killed in the crash on Saturday in a mountainous part of Pervari district in Siirt province, in southeastern Turkey, where the rebel Kurdistan Worker's Party is fighting for self-rule.

President Abdullah Gul said the soldiers were on their way "to help their friends" in an operation against the rebels who have escalated attacks in recent months, adding the incident would not deter Turkey from its determination to fight the rebels.

The provincial governor, Ahmet Aydin, blamed the crash on heavy fog and ruled out an attack by the rebel group.

"The weather during the transportation (of troops) was bad. There was extreme rain. The helicopter crashed into rocks because of the fog," Aydin said in televised statements. "The incident was the result of a crash and any kind of an attack is out of the question."

The Kurdish rebels have been fighting since the 1980s and they seek more rights for Kurds, including autonomy in the mostly Kurdish southeast of the country. Turkey and its Western allies categorise the rebels, known by the acronym PKK, as a terrorist group.

Several days ago, Turkish media reported that Turkish soldiers were airlifted into northern Iraq for a brief operation against suspected rebels, who have bases there. There were no reports of casualties on that mission. Turkey periodically carries out artillery and air strikes on PKK positions in northern Iraq, but reports of cross-border incursions by troops are rare.

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China export growth accelerates

CHINA'S export growth sped up in October in fresh evidence of a broader rebound for the world's second-largest economy, as a top official all but declared the country's slowdown over.

Exports rose 11.6 per cent in October from a year earlier, the national customs bureau said on Saturday, accelerating for a second straight month just as the Communist Party discusses how best to achieve sustainable economic growth.

"The trend of slowdown has been effectively curbed," Zhang Ping, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told reporters.

"From October economic data the trend for a rebound in the Chinese economy is all the more obvious."

China's economic growth has slowed for seven straight quarters and hit a more than three-year low of 7.4 per cent in the three months through September, but recent data has fuelled optimism that the worst is over.

Industrial production for October accelerated to growth of 9.6 per cent on-year, the government said on Friday. Retail sales, the main measure of consumer spending, also picked up to a 14.5 per cent gain.

Fixed-asset investment, a key gauge of infrastructure spending, showed improvement, while inflation dipped to a nearly three-year low of 1.7 per cent.

The customs bureau also said on Saturday that October imports increased 2.4 per cent, matching September's gain.

China's trade surplus, a source of friction with the United States and other countries, widened to $US32 billion ($A30.88 billion), up from $US27.7 billion in September.

The size was a surprise, surpassing the median forecast of $US27 billion in a survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires.

"Today's trade data, together with improving domestic demand indicators released yesterday, continue to support our view that China's growth momentum has picked up," ANZ bank economists Liu Li-Gang and Zhou Hao wrote in a commentary.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists Lu Ting and Hu Weijun said the export data back up their view of economic growth strengthening to 7.8 per cent in the fourth quarter and 8.3 per cent in the first half of 2013.

"We believe China's economic growth has truly bottomed out," they said in a report.

China's Communist Party has been meeting since Thursday to anoint new leaders for the next 10 years at its 18th congress.

President Hu Jintao is expected to be replaced as party leader by Vice President Xi Jinping before the meeting adjourns on Wednesday.

Hu, in a speech on Thursday to the meeting, called for creating a new growth model with a robust private sector, while also insisting on the primacy of the party-led state sector.

He also warned that corruption threatens the existence of both party and state in the speech to the event, held every five years to boost the ruling party's leadership credentials.

Modernising China's economy and pulling hundreds of millions out of poverty in the more than three decades since the country embarked on reform policies is a key claim to legitimacy for the world's largest political party.

China's economy racked up average annual growth rates of more than 10 per cent in the decade through 2010, but officials now say they want an expansion that can be maintained.

"We are calling for a shift in the growth model ... to focus on sustainable growth," the NDRC's Zhang said.

Independent economist Andy Xie, based in Shanghai, said the economy still faced headwinds given continued weakness in overseas economies and in China's own domestic demand as shown by tepid import growth.

He also expressed a lack of confidence in the ability of party leaders to manage the economy.

"At least in the last five years, it's become very clear it's about how to divide the spoils among the powerful people," he said of the congress.

"I don't see it's changing. Without political reforms the economy is not coming back."

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Man in custody over laneway body discovery

A MAN is in custody and assisting detectives as police investigate the death of a woman whose body was found in a laneway in Western Australia's mid west region.

A 36-year-old man is in custody in Meekatharra and assisting major crime squad detectives with their investigations.

The woman's body was found at the northern end of the Meekatharra town site, about 765km northeast of Perth, about noon (WST) on Friday.

The woman has not yet been identified.

Police are treating her death as a suspected homicide but have not yet established the cause of death.

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China economic data point to recovery

CHINA'S factory output and consumer spending improved in October in a new sign of possible economic recovery as the Communist Party prepared to install a new generation of leaders.

Growth in factory output accelerated to 9.6 per cent over a year earlier from the previous month's 9.2 per cent, the government reported on Friday.

Retail sales rose 14.5 per cent, up from September's 14.2 per cent.

The data are welcome news for the ruling party, which is meeting in Beijing for a once-a-decade handover of power to younger leaders.

Coming off the past year's steady declines in economic activity, a rebound might allow the new leaders to benefit from improving public sentiment.

Investment growth strengthened, rising 25.2 per cent over a year earlier, up from the previous month's 25.1 per cent.

Also in October, inflation eased further, giving Beijing more room to cut interest rates or launch new stimulus measures to speed a recovery with less danger of igniting politically dangerous price rises.

The improvement comes as communist leaders are holding a party congress in the capital that is expected to install Vice President Xi Jinping as party leader and China's next president.

The new leadership faces challenges including slowing growth that the World Bank and Chinese analysts say will require a drastic change in the country's economic strategy.

They say Beijing must reduce the dominance of state companies in industries from finance to energy to banking and nurture free-market competition to keep incomes rising.

Economic growth fell to a three and a half year low of 7.4 per cent in the quarter ending in September but investment, retail sales and other indicators improved from the previous quarter.

The government said last month it saw "steady economic growth," suggesting there was no need for further major stimulus.

The slowdown was due largely to government efforts to crush inflation and prevent economic overheating after the huge stimulus in response to the 2008 global crisis fuelled sharp price rises.

Beijing reversed course late last year after global demand for Chinese goods plunged, slamming exporters and raising the danger of job losses and unrest.

The abrupt slowdown added to complications for communist leaders as they tried to enforce calm ahead of the leadership change.

Forecasters expect growth to rebound this quarter or early in 2013.

They say any recovery is likely to be gradual and too weak to drive global growth without improvement in the United States and Europe.

Beijing launched a mini-stimulus early this year, cutting interest rates twice in June and July and stepping up investment by state companies and spending on building airports and other public works.

But authorities avoided bigger measures after their huge spending in response to the 2008 global crisis fuelled inflation and a wasteful building boom.

In October, consumer prices rose 1.7 per cent, down from the previous month's 1.9 per cent.

That was driven by a 1.8 per cent gain in food prices, which are unusually sensitive in a society where the poorest families spend up to half their incomes to eat, down from September's 2.5 per cent.

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Japan steelmaking giant posts $US4bn loss

THE world's second biggest steelmaker, created through the recent merger of Japan's Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal, has posted a $US3.9 billion ($A3.76 billion) combined net loss in its fiscal first half.

The whopping shortfall for Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp was largely linked to stock investment losses and the writedown of money-losing Japanese mills, it said on Friday.

Global competition in the steel industry has intensified in recent years even as demand has been spurred by fast-growing economies such as China, which are undertaking massive construction, infrastructure and manufacturing projects.

However, a slowing global economy and weakening vehicle production are threatening steelmakers' bottom line.

Japanese producers have also struggled with an unfavourable exchange rate, which saw the yen hit record highs against the dollar late last year, making their exports less competitive overseas.

"We are in the situation of mounting uncertainties as nobody can predict how the situation is going to play out or when a recovery is set to start," Executive Vice President Fumio Hombe told a news briefing, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

In its results on Friday, the combined firm said Nippon Steel alone booked a loss of 176.66 billion yen ($US2.2 billion) in the six months to September, reversing a year-earlier profit, with sales down 5.4 per cent.

Sumitomo Metal lost 133.85 billion yen in the same period, expanding its year-earlier loss, on slightly higher sales.

Combined revenue was about $US32.7 billion, they said.

The loss comes after the two Japanese giants formally merged last month, creating the world's second largest steelmaker behind India's ArcelorMittal.

On Friday, the firms said domestic steel demand was steady in the key construction and auto sectors after last year's quake-tsunami disaster, but the expiry of government eco-vehicle subsidies could take a bite out of demand for new vehicles.

Japanese steelmakers are also struggling against fierce competition from Chinese and South Korean rivals, while a global economic slowdown has weighed on demand for steel, used in everything from cars to smartphones.

"Steel demand overseas is beginning to weaken after having been driven largely by strong demand in Asia," the company said in a statement, warning of a supply glut that is "causing the deterioration of the steel market".

"In this severe operating environment, the company continued its efforts to maximise cost improvements", it added.

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Air raids, clashes hit Damascus: watchdog

SYRIAN rebels and troops have clashed in several districts of Damascus while air raids hit the city's outskirts, a watchdog says, amid intensifying fighting in the capital.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Syria is now so bad that the Red Cross is struggling to cope, the head of the international aid agency said on Thursday.

The violence in Damascus came a day after 133 people were killed on Wednesday across Syria, including 59 civilians, rebels and soldiers in Damascus province alone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Fresh fighting erupted overnight in Damascus in the southern neighbourhood of Qadam and Mazzeh in the west, where three civilians were killed on Wednesday in a shelling attack on Mazzeh 86, a district mainly populated by members of the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

Sectarian tensions have mounted over the course of the 20-month uprising, with civilians in the majority Sunni country bearing the brunt of the death toll.

On Thursday, warplanes pounded the town of Saqba just outside the capital, while helicopters could be seen circling over the East Ghuta area, some 50 kilometres northeast of Damascus, the Britain-based watchdog said.

At dawn, plumes of smoke rose over the southern Damascus districts of Nahr Aisha and Midan after mortar rounds fell on the area, reported the Observatory, which gathers its information from a network of activists, lawyers and medics on the ground.

In the commercial hub Aleppo, troops bombarded the eastern districts of the city, while one rebel was killed as clashes broke out around the air force intelligence branch in Zahraa district in the northwest.

Residents told AFP that warplanes and tanks shelled Zahraa and Liramun at the northwest entrance of the city overnight.

An AFP correspondent reported the sound of machinegun fire and explosions as rebels and troops battled in the Old City.

The Observatory says more than 37,000 people have died since the March 2011 outbreak of the Syrian revolt, which began as a peaceful protest movement inspired by the Arab Spring but evolved into an armed rebellion following repression.

In Geneva, Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told reporters: "The humanitarian situation is getting worse despite the scope of the operation increasing. We can't cope with the worsening of the situation."

The ICRC, which works in collaboration with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to deliver aid in the conflict-racked country, nonetheless has "a lot of blank spots" with regard to the needs of the people on the ground, he said.

"There is an unknown number of people in Syria who do not get the aid they need."

Meanwhile, an Armenian plane carrying humanitarian aid for Syria was forced to land in Turkey on Thursday for an inspection of its cargo, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The cargo plane landed at Erzurum airport in eastern Turkey where teams of police and troops with sniffer dogs began a search, it said.

It was the second time in a month that the Turkish authorities have ordered an Armenian plane heading for Syria to land for security checks.

On October 15, another Armenian plane carrying humanitarian aid to Syria's battered second city of Aleppo was forced to land at Erzurum airport but the plane was allowed to resume journey after officials said no suspect cargo turned up during searches.

Last month, Turkish jets forced a Syrian plane flying from Russia to land at Ankara airport because of what it called suspect cargo.

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Schoolies advised to look after mates

That's the simple message from organisers of this year's schoolies event on the Gold Coast.

Nearly 30,000 school leavers are expected to descend on Surfers Paradise from next week in the annual end-of-year celebrations.

The death of Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercars reveller Jordan Bailo after a high-rise fall in October sparked immediate concerns about teenagers partying in Gold Coast apartments during schoolies week.

But Gold Coast Schoolies Advisory Group chairman Mark Raeburn says rather than highlight one area of potential risk, his message is for youngsters to keep an eye on each other during next weekend's festivities.

"A couple of years ago it was planking that was the big thing," Mr Raeburn told AAP.

"We had a concern that that was going to become a problem but fortunately it wasn't.

"We try not to feature one thing in particular. What we try and do is focus on just being safe across the board and the big thing is just to watch your mates.

"Keep an eye on the people around you."

Mr Raeburn said the annual pilgrimage to the Gold Coast was much safer now than a few years ago, thanks to the increased cooperation and planning by organising committees and the police.

The alcohol-free schoolies hub on the Surfers Paradise beachfront was designed to bring students out of their apartments and away from non-schoolies in a safe and controlled environment, he said.

"There is no point pretending that these kids aren't going to drink," Mr Raeburn said.

"There's no point pretending kids aren't going to play up because they're away from mum and dad and, in some cases, it's their first experience of living away from home.

"That's the reason we have the hub on the beach - we want kids to come out of the units, because it's in the units that the issues really occur.

"We want them to wear themselves out by dancing madly on the beach."

Mr Raeburn said a particular focus in this year's schoolies will be the use of social media to communicate with those attending and keep them informed of event details.

There will also be a "chill-out" night on Tuesday to provide partygoers with a break in their revelry.

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Hong Kong shares end 2.41% lower

HONG Kong shares have tumbled 2.41 per cent on fears US legislators will fail to reach a deal before year-end to avoid a "fiscal cliff" that could tip the economy back into recession.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index on Thursday fell 532.94 points to 21,566.91 on turnover of $HK72.66 billion ($A9.04 billion). The fall is the index's steepest since July 23 but comes after it enjoyed a 16 per cent rally since the start of September.

Eyes are also on Beijing where the Communist Party began a week-long congress to anoint the country's next leaders.

President Barack Obama's election victory over Republican Mitt Romney has been followed with trepidation as the focus turns to the "fiscal cliff", a combination of deep spending cuts and tax rises.

These will automatically take effect on January 1 unless Democrats and Republicans can agree on alternative ways to cut the deficit.

Henderson Land and New World Development, sourcing firm Li & Fung, oil majors PetroChina and China National Offshore Oil Corporation, coalminer China Shenhua and Macau casino operator Galaxy Entertainment all fell more than 3.0 per cent on profit-taking.

Chinese shares closed down 1.63 per cent. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 34.22 points to 2,071.51 on turnover of 49.3 billion yuan ($A7.62 billion).

Traders are watching the 18th party congress to see if the country's rulers unveil any fresh measures to boost the domestic economy, which has suffered a slowdown in the past year.

"Given the absence of market-moving news from the domestic side, concerns about the US fiscal cliff dominate the (domestic) A-share market," Capital Securities' analyst Li Bin told Dow Jones Newswires.

Resources stocks led the declines on concerns about the global economy.

Coal producer Heilongjiang Heihua slumped 8.40 per cent to 6.87 yuan, Anyuan Coal Industry dropped 5.92 per cent to 12.40 yuan and Shanxi Coking Coal fell 4.27 per cent to 8.29 yuan.

Nonferrous metals producer Chengtun Mining lost 5.19 per cent to 10.23 yuan while Rising Nonferrous Metals fell 3.89 per cent to 41.56 yuan.

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Queensland's CMC sacks 13

QUEENSLAND'S Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) says it has lost another 13 staff because of the state government's budget cuts.

The CMC had already announced that between July 1 and October 11 there were 44 separations, none of which were forced redundancies.

On Wednesday the CMC announced that 13 people had been made redundant.

CMC head Ross Martin told the budget estimates hearing in parliament last month that their budget had been reduced by less than one per cent, but it would lead to "losses of capacity".

He said the CMC had a "substantial" workload and there was queuing to deal with investigations.

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World leaders celebrate Obama re-election

FROM his old school in Indonesia to a Japanese beach town that happens to share his name, people around the world cheered President Barack Obama's re-election.

The results of Tuesday's election were closely watched in many countries. Several US embassies held mock elections and threw parties as returns came in.

At Jakarta's Menteng 01 Primary School, which Obama once attended, students happily marched with a poster of the president from one classroom to another after hearing that he had defeated Republican Mitt Romney to win a second term.

"Obama wins ... Obama wins again," they shouted on Wednesday.

A statue of a young "Barry" Obama, as he was called as a child, stands outside the school.

"I want to be like him, the president," student Alexander Ananta said.

The news also thrilled Obama's former nanny in Indonesia, Evie, who became well known this year following reports of her struggles living in the conservative country as a transgender.

"Hopefully, he will contribute to the betterment of not only American citizens, but to the world as well," said Evie, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

China's Foreign Ministry said President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao phoned Obama to congratulate him. Vice President Xi Jinping, who is to begin taking over this week in China's once-a-decade leadership transition, phoned Vice President Joe Biden to congratulate him.

British Prime Minister David Cameron posted his regards on Twitter: "Warm congratulations to my friend (at)BarackObama. Look forward to continuing to work together."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had a strained relationship with the American president over his policies on Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, congratulated the president in a text message to reporters.

"I will continue to work with President Obama to preserve the strategic interests of Israel's citizens," he said.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority has been disappointed that Obama did not pressure Israel to make greater efforts to make peace with the Palestinians, including a freeze on all settlement construction.

In the absence of negotiations, senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat urged the US president to reverse course and support Palestinian efforts to seek UN General Assembly recognition of an independent state of Palestine.

"We have decided to take our cause to the United Nations this month, and we hope that Obama will stand by us," Erekat told Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.

In China, Obama's re-election was good news for people concerned about Romney's vow to label China a currency manipulator if elected. Some feared that would ignite a trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

"His re-election is in line with what the Chinese people want," said Hong Zihan, a graduate student who monitored the results at a US Embassy event in Beijing.

For Obama, Japan, the president's re-election means more opportunity to capitalise on their shared name. Obama means "little beach" in Japanese.

The western coastal town threw a party as they watched the election returns. Hula dancers known as the Obama Girls swayed in homage of the president's home state of Hawaii, said Obama city hall official Hirokazu Yomo.

"Four more years," Yomo said. "So we are happy this will continue and help with building our city."

In Burma, which is pushing political reforms forward after five decades of military rule kept it isolated from much of the rest of the world, some said they were relieved Obama was re-elected because he chosen to engage rather than sanction their country.

"It is good that President Obama is re-elected. President Obama is very flexible and international relations have improved during his term," said Thit Oo, a 42-year-old car mechanic.

Washington has started focusing more on Asia since Obama took office. Some Asian countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam, have been looking more towards the US as tensions flare with China over disputed territories in the South China Sea.

A spokesman for the main Syrian opposition bloc, the Syrian National Council, expressed hope that the election victory would free Obama to do more to support those trying to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"We hope this victory for President Obama will make him free more to make the right decision to help freedom and dignity in Syria and all over the world," SNC spokesman George Sabra said on the sidelines of an opposition conference on the Qatari capital of Doha.

Sabra renewed the opposition's appeal to the international community to supply rebel fighters with weapons.

The Obama administration and its Western allies have ruled out military intervention in Syria. The US has also been cool to opposition rebels' demands for weapons such as anti-aircraft missiles, out of concern that they could fall into the wrong hands.

The US and other foreign backers of the Syrian uprising have urged the fractured, largely exile-based opposition to unite and include more representatives from inside Syria.

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Jubilant Obama says 'best is yet to come'

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has told cheering supporters that "the best is yet to come" for the United States as he stormed to a second term by defeating Republican Mitt Romney.

After taking the stage at a raucous Chicago victory party early on Wednesday with wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia, Obama returned to the themes of his re-election bid, vowing to fight for the middle class and the American dream.

"In this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up. We have fought our way back," Obama told hundreds of cheering supporters.

"We know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come."

Obama said he had spoken to Romney, congratulating him and his running mate Paul Ryan on a "hard-fought campaign" and vowing to sit down with the former Massachusetts governor to discuss the way forward.

"We may have battled fiercely but it's only because we love this country deeply and we care so strongly about its future," Obama said.

"In the weeks ahead I also look forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward."

Obama reached out to those who supported his opponent in the closely-fought race, saying: "Whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you. I have learned from you. You've made me a better president.

"With your stories and your struggles I return to the White House more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and the future that lies ahead," he said.

"Despite all the hardship we've been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I've never been more hopeful about our future. I have never been more hopeful about America."

Obama thanked the army of campaign workers and volunteers whose efforts secured his re-election to a second four-year term, calling them the "best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics".

Near the end of his speech Obama hinted at a more far-reaching agenda in his second term despite the lingering partisan gridlock in Washington, calling for a future that "isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet".

"I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. We're not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of individual ambitions," Obama said.

"Together with your help and God's Grace we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on earth. Thank you, America. God bless you. God bless these United States."

Earlier Romney conceded defeat in a short and simple address, telling his supporters he had called Obama to congratulate him on his victory.

"His supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations," Romney said in Boston.

"I wish all of them well but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters."

It was a quick, underwhelming end to an 18-month campaign that began on a farm in New Hampshire, survived brutal Republican infighting during the party primaries early this year, and a barrage of negative attack ads by the Obama camp, and rose to give the incumbent a serious scare weeks before the election.

Romney was neck-and-neck with the president for a considerable part of the campaign, but despite repeated trips to swing states like Colorado, Ohio, Florida, and Virginia, Obama held on to leads in the battlegrounds, which eventually became the challenger's undoing.

"This election is over, but our principles endure," said Romney, who said he believed smaller government, limited regulations and lower taxes could create more jobs and bring a speedier economic recovery.

"I so wish that I had been able to fulfil your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader, and so Ann and I join with you to earnestly pray for him and this great nation," Romney said to cheers and applause.

Several members of Romney's senior staff stood next to the stage, many stony-faced and sombre, as the Republican nominee addressed his supporters.

Romney returned to a theme that he began injecting into his stump speeches in the closing two weeks of the campaign: the need for greater bipartisanship in Washington.

"At a time like this, we can't risk partisan bickering and posturing," he said.

"Our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work and we citizens have to rise to the occasion."

Romney also thanked his running mate, congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, as well as wife Ann Romney, his tireless surrogate on the campaign trail whom he called "the love of my life".

"She would have been a wonderful first lady," he mused, to loud applause.

Romney's comments were brief and basic, and it was not immediately clear if he had written a concession speech.

Earlier in the day, when asked by reporters on his campaign plane whether he had two speeches ready to go for Tuesday night, he said he was confident of defeating Obama and had penned an 1118-word victory speech.

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US soldier 'lucid' after Afghan massacre

A US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers was "lucid" and admitted to the crimes, prosecutors said as he appeared in court for the first time.

Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, 39, had been drinking whisky and watching a violent action movie with comrades before leaving his base twice to massacre civilians, mostly women and children, in two nearby villages, they said.

His wife and lawyer have claimed that Bales, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, could not remember what he did on the night of March 11 in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province.

But prosecutors refuted that claim on Monday, at the start of a two-week Article 32 hearing held to determine if he should face a full court martial over the killings, the worst US military crime in the decade-old war.

"He was lucid, he was coherent, he was responsive," said prosecutor Joseph Morse at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, adding that Bales had admitted to the crimes, reportedly saying: "It's bad, really bad."

Sporting a shaved head and wearing fatigues, Bales answered the judge's questions in a clear voice, responding: "Sir, yes sir." He alternated between sitting forward and slumping against the back of his chair.

Morse said the night began in the room of a fellow soldier, Sergeant Jason McLaughlin, where they drank Jack Daniel's and Diet Pepsi while watching Man on Fire, starring Denzel Washington as an ex-assassin on a revenge mission.

At some point after leaving McLaughlin's room, Bale then allegedly entered the room of Sergeant Clayton Blackshear and had a rambling conversation in which he said he was unhappy with his home life.

"He talked about having bad kids, an ugly wife - he basically didn't care if he made it back home to them," Blackshear testified.

Bales also expressed frustration that those responsible for an IED attack the previous week had not been found and brought to justice.

Sometime around midnight, Bales allegedly left the base, heading south to a nearby village, and visited two houses. At the first, he shot one man while the others in the house fled across the street to a neighbour's house.

Bales then entered the second house, killing three more while injuring six with gunshots to the face, neck, thigh and knees.

Bales is then alleged to have returned to base and conversed with at least one soldier before leaving once again, this time headed in the opposite direction.

McLaughlin testified that Bales came into his room at around 2am and admitted to shooting up the nearby village. McLaughlin, who did not believe Bales and was annoyed at being woken up, recalled the following exchange:

Bales: "I'll be back at 5:00. You got me?"

"Whatever, Bob," McLaughlin replied.

"Take care of my kids," Bales said, grabbing McLaughlin's hand.

"No Bob, take care of your own kids," McLaughlin replied.

"No, take care of my kids," Bales repeated.

"OK Bob," McLaughlin said.

The second excursion was more deadly - Bales allegedly visited two Afghan dwellings, again killing one person in the first home.

In the second home, he allegedly murdered 11 people, including women and children. He then gathered the bodies in the centre of the room, setting them alight, according to the prosecutor.

Bales faces 16 counts of murder, six of attempted murder, seven of assault, two of using drugs and one of drinking alcohol. Seventeen of the 22 victims were women or children and almost all were shot in the head.

The charge sheet listed each individual murder count against him, describing the victims as "of apparent Afghan descent," with their names blanked out on the copy distributed to media.

The other charges also included "wrongfully burn(ing) bodies of apparent Afghan descent which conduct was prejudicial to good order and discipline in the armed forces and of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces."

Another witness, Corporal David Godwin, meanwhile testified that he tried unsuccessfully to help Bales dispose of evidence after his arrest - investigators found a vial of stanozolol, an anabolic steroid.

Godwin, who has been granted immunity from prosecution in return for testifying, also said that in the aftermath, Bales told him, "It's bad. It's real bad."

Witnesses and relatives of victims are expected to testify via videolink from Afghanistan next week, when the US-based hearings will be held in the evening, to allow Afghan testimony during daylight hours.

Should the Article 32 hearing result in a court-martial and Bales be found guilty, he could face the death penalty.

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Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria dies at age 98

PATRIARCH Maxim of Bulgaria, the spiritual leader of the Balkan country's Orthodox Christians who weathered a revolt over his communist-era ties to head the church for more than 40 years, has died. He was 98.

The patriarch died of heart failure early on Tuesday at a Sofia hospital where he had been for a month, the Holy Synod said in a statement.

The Holy Synod of 13 senior clergy will meet to make funeral arrangements and choose an interim patriarch until a larger Church Council is held within the next four months to pick Maxim's successor, church officials said.

Orthodox Christianity is the Bulgaria's dominant religion, followed by more than 80 per cent of the country's 7.4 million people. Maxim was the church's leader for more than four decades, bridging the country's transition from communism and withstanding efforts to oust him by the new democratic government and rebel priests who saw him as a communist stooge.

Born on Oct. 29, 1914 as Marin Naidenov Minkov, he graduated from the Sofia Seminary in 1935 and entered Sofia University's theology department in 1938, before rising through the church ranks to be named Patriarch on July 4, 1971.

After the collapse of communism in 1989, the new democratic government sought to replace communist-appointed figureheads, including the patriarch, but because of the division between church and state such a decision could only be made by the church. It split between supporters of Patriarch Maxim and breakaway clergymen, who attempted to oust him and then formed their own synod.

The division plunged the church into turmoil, with occupations of key church buildings; priests breaking into fistfights on church steps; and water cannons and tear gas being turned on rebel bishops to clear the main Alexander Nevski cathedral.

For more than a decade, the two synods existed side by side, with the dissidents claiming to have rallied 30 per cent of the country's 1,000 priests to their cause. The majority of believers stayed loyal to Maxim, who was recognised as legitimate by the church's other patriarchates.

The schism ended in 2010, when the head of the alternative synod, Metropolitan Inokentii, called for a healing of division between the groups and the rival synod was dissolved.

A panel reviewing communist-era collaborators with the former security services found no links to Maxim, though it said that 11 out of the country's 15 bishops had been working with the communist regime.

The church leader largely kept away from political life, though he remained an influential figure throughout his career.

He was hailed for meeting with Pope John Paul II during the pontiff's visit to Sofia in 2002, a trip seen as warming the frosty relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Vatican.

He also rallied support among his Orthodox colleagues in other countries for the release of six Bulgarian medics sentenced to death by the Gaddafi regime in Libya for allegedly deliberately infecting children with HIV.

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Gillard and Hague discuss Syria, Iran

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard and British Foreign Secretary William Hague have discussed the need to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions and the conflict in Syria as priority issues.

While Mr Hague has welcomed Australia's election to the UN security council in talks on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Vientiane on Tuesday, it's understood he also advised Ms Gillard to prepare for "a challenging period".

There would be a "very strong focus" on Iran and Syria, he is believed to have told the prime minister.

Ms Gillard has already expressed concern about Iran and Syria, with other leaders in Laos telling French President Francois Hollande on Monday evening that Australia would continue to call for "strong sanctions" against the government in Tehran.

It's understood Ms Gillard also told Mr Hollande that Australia had "consistently expressed its strong concerns" about Iran's nuclear program and its failure to abide by its Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency obligations.

In her meeting with Mr Hague, the prime minister also discussed the war in Afghanistan, including support for the war-torn nation after foreign forces leave the country at the end of 2014.

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Heavy clashes in Syrian cities

SYRIAN rebels clashed with regime troops in Damascus and Aleppo as the opposition held makeover talks in Qatar and diplomatic efforts to end the violence spun their wheels.

The fresh clashes came as the rebels sought to keep momentum after seizing a major oilfield and shooting down a warplane in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on Sunday.

Fighting had erupted Sunday night in southern districts of the capital on the periphery of the Yarmuk Palestinian camp, and renewed at dawn on Monday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog.

It said Palestinian fighters had joined the clashes on both sides.

In Aleppo, fighting broke out at a roundabout at the northwest entrance to the city in the Zahraa district and on the airport road to the southeast, the Observatory and residents said.

One resident of a district near Zahraa said Monday's fighting in the area was the heaviest in recent days.

"It's been almost one week that we are living in terror at night. We hear everything - gun battles, tank shelling, explosions... The clashes before dawn today were the worst all week," Samir, a 37-year-old pharmacist, told AFP.

A source with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent also said Monday its main warehouse in Aleppo had burned down amid recent fighting, with the loss of crucial supplies including medicine, food and winter relief items like blankets.

The rebels have scored significant wins in recent weeks and hold swathes of territory in the country's north, but have struggled to gain ground in and around Damascus and in the commercial hub Aleppo amid heavy bombardment from regime air power.

Strikes from regime warplanes and helicopter gunships have reached a new level of intensity in recent days as government forces try to reverse rebel gains on the ground.

Air raids continued Monday with jets hitting the eastern outskirts of Damascus, the northwest province of Idlib and near the Iraqi border in the east, the Observatory said.

It said that 203 people, including 112 civilians, were killed in nationwide violence on Sunday.

The escalating conflict has added urgency to a meeting of the Syrian National Council in Qatar, where the United States is reportedly pressing for a new umbrella organisation to unite the country's fractured opposition.

According to the reports, which emerged after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the SNC was not representative, long-time dissident Riad Seif is touted as the potential head of a new government-in-exile dubbed the Syrian National Initiative.

But as the Doha meeting began Sunday, Seif denied planning to head such a government.

"I shall not be a candidate to lead a government in exile... I am 66 and have health problems," he told reporters.

SNC chief Abdel Basset Sayda denounced what he called "efforts to bypass the SNC and numerous attempts to find substitutes" for the group, though he recognised that some criticisms of it are founded.

The SNC lashed out on Friday at alleged US interference, accusing Washington of undermining the revolt and "sowing the seeds of division" by seeking its overhaul.

On the diplomatic front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Cairo on Sunday with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi for talks on Syria, but the meeting proved fruitless.

"We discussed the situation in Syria... reviewing what has been done so far and if there is any way to move forward. And let us be clear, there wasn't any agreement on anything," Arabi told a joint news conference.

Lavrov stressed the need to "convince the Syrian parties to cease fire and sit down for negotiations in accordance with the Geneva agreement," referring to a Russian-backed transition plan world powers agreed on June 30.

Russia and China have stymied Western- and Arab-backed efforts to put more pressure on President Bashar al-Assad's regime by blocking UN Security Council resolutions.

The Observatory says more than 36,000 people have died since the uprising against Assad's rule broke out in March 2011, first as a protest movement inspired by the Arab Spring and then as an armed rebellion.

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European leaders seek Asian support

EUROPEAN leaders gathered in impoverished Laos on Monday on a mission to reassure Asia they are finally getting a grip on the eurozone debt crisis during a major summit in the tiny landlocked nation.

Top European officials including French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti were spearheading efforts to boost much-needed trade with Asia's fast-growing economies.

Hollande said the main aim of his first trip to Asia since taking office in May was to bring the message that "Europe is still an economic power".

"I'm here to reassure Asian countries" but at the same time "to tell them that they also have a role to play in European and global growth", he added.

"Asians have gained a lot from our growth. Now it's time for them to boost our growth with their demand."

He criticised the inflexibility of the Chinese yuan and certain other Asian currencies, saying: "We have to be competitive but that requires fair exchange rates."

Western nations frequently criticise Beijing's tight grip on the yuan, arguing that it gives the Asian giant an unfair trade advantage.

For years Western outrage over Burma's human rights abuses -- including the longtime detention of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners -- was a major cause of friction between the two regions.

Unlike other participating nations, Burma was only allowed to send its foreign minister to previous Asia-Europe summits.

But after reforms including the release of political detainees and Suu Kyi's election to parliament, the West has begun easing sanctions to reward President Thein Sein, who is now on the summit guest list.

Optimism over the sweeping changes, however, has been dampened by deadly clashes between Buddhists and stateless Rohingya Muslims in Burma's western state of Rakhine.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on Burma to address "the unresolved problems of the status of the Rohingya people".

"That's an issue of major concern for us. I'll certainly raise that with the Burma leaders here when I have the opportunity to do so," he told reporters in the Laos capital Vientiane.

Dozens of people have been killed and more than 100,000 displaced since June by the unrest.

The violence is also "an issue of concern" for Southeast Asia, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told AFP.

"But the fact that we can meet here in the heart of Southeast Asia almost without having Myanmar as an issue centre-stage as it has been in the past is a reflection of how far Myanmar has travelled in terms of its democratic transition," he added.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been accused by the West in the past of turning a blind eye to human rights abuses by the generals who ran Burma for decades.

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European stocks dip at open; London down

EUROPE'S main stock markets fell at the start of trading on Monday, in cautious trade on the eve of the US presidential election, dealers said.

London's FTSE 100 index of top companies slid 0.44 percent to 5,842.55 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 shed 0.58 percent to 7,320.98 points and in Paris the CAC 40 dropped 0.68 percent to 3,468.71.

"Trading volumes are expected to remain low this morning ahead of the US presidential election tomorrow," said Alpari analyst Craig Erlam.

"The race for the White House has been extremely close for months now and with just one day to go until people in the US go to the polls, traders are likely to remain risk averse."

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