Hong Kong stocks end flat

HONG Kong shares have finished flat as an afternoon sell-off wiped out earlier gains despite growing hopes of a deal in Washington to avert the US fiscal cliff.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index on Tuesday eased 18.88 points to close at 22,494.73 on a huge turnover of HK$118.22 billion ($A14.52 billion), thanks to trade in AIA after American International Group sold its final stake in the Asian insurer.

The market spent most of the day in positive territory, in line with a regional rally, after US President Barack Obama and top Republican lawmaker John Boehner met in the White House for 45 minutes on Monday.

The talks were the latest effort to avert the fiscal cliff of tax hikes and spending cuts and follow news Boehner had changed his position on not allowing any more taxes.

He said at the weekend that he would agree to some hikes for people earning more than $US1 million.

Wall Street ended on a high, with the Dow closing up 0.76 per cent, the S&P 500 gaining 1.19 per cent and the Nasdaq adding 1.32 per cent.

The HSI was weighed down by a 3.3 per cent fall to $HK30.60 in AIA after the AIG sale, which fetched $US6.45 billion ($A6.14 billion). However, the firm still managed to finish above the $HK30.30 price at which AIG sold.

China Overseas Land fell 1.9 per cent to $HK22.95 but is still up 76.8 per cent for the year to date. China Resources Land slid 1.9 per cent to $HK19.96.

Chinese shares ended up 0.10 per cent, extending their winning run to three days after leaders said they would push to increase domestic demand in the new year.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 2.12 points to 2,162.46 on turnover of 99.0 billion yuan ($A15.14 billion).

China "will continue to implement the proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy in 2013" and make domestic demand a top priority, the new leadership said at a key economic conference at the weekend.

Soochow Securities analyst Deng Wenyuan told Dow Jones Newswires: "One of the major drivers for China shares are expectations for macro policy easing."

However, he cautioned: "I think investors might have been too optimistic about that," adding aggressive monetary easing is unlikely given still-high property prices.

Rising Nonferrous Metals surged by its 10 per cent daily limit to 47.55 yuan, Baotou Steel Rare Earth jumped 5.05 per cent to 36.17 yuan and Xiamen Tungsten rose 2.48 per cent to 36.72 yuan.

Qinling Cement also soared by 10 per cent to 6.88 yuan while Taiyuan Lionhead Cement gained 4.94 per cent to 5.31 yuan.

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Iraqi president taken to hospital

THE office of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani says he has been admitted to the hospital for treatment of an unspecified health problem.

The president's office posted the brief statement on its official website. It said Talabani was taken to the hospital on Monday evening after showing signs of fatigue.

The statement gave no further details and says a medical report will be issued later. Talabani's spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

An Iraqi cabinet official said Talabani fainted on Monday and remains unconscious.

The Iraqi presidency is seen as a largely ceremonial post, though it does retain some powers under Iraq's constitution. The president must sign off on laws approved by parliament and has the power to block executions.

Talabani, a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority, has frequently used the post to mediate disputes within the government and among Iraq's various sects and ethnic groups.

He has recently been working to resolve a standoff between the central government and the Kurds, who have their own fighting force.

The two sides last month moved additional troops into disputed areas along the Kurds' self-rule northern region, prompting fears that fighting could break out.

Talabani last week brokered a deal that calls on both sides to eventually withdraw troops from the contested areas, though there is no timetable for how soon the drawdown might take place.

Talabani met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki earlier on Monday. They agreed that al-Maliki would invite a delegation from the Kurdish regional government to Baghdad to continue the talks, according to al-Maliki's office.

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Jacob Zuma re-elected president of ANC

SOUTH African president Jacob Zuma has scored a thumping victory in an ANC leadership contest, opening the way for him to lead Africa's largest economy until 2019.

Zuma won 2983 votes out 3977 votes cast at a party conference in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, making him the odds-on favourite to retain the presidency after 2014 general elections.

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Strong 6.1 quake off eastern Indonesia

AN earthquake of 6.1 magnitude has been detected off the eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi. There have been no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The US Geological Survey said the quake was centred 119 kilometres northeast of Luwuk, in Central Sulawesi province, at a depth of 18.5 kilometres. No tsunami warning was issued.

The largest archipelagic Indonesia is prone to earthquake because of its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

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Connecticut gunman 'a brilliant student'

WHEN he was a student at Newtown High, Adam Lanza would sometimes have what a school employee described as "an episode".

No one knew what brought it on. The shy teenager "would just shut down," said Richard Novia, a former adviser to the school tech club.

He said at other times Lanza enjoyed joining other technology-minded students for fantasy role-playing video games and for sleepovers at school.

Lanza, a thin, gangly boy, would sometimes shuffle through the halls, clutching his briefcase to his chest and avoiding eye contact.

At times, he would simply shut down. He'd sit staring at the ground, refusing to talk to anyone.

"It would be total emotional withdrawal," Novia said.

"He wouldn't hurt anyone or yell. He wouldn't speak or talk, he would walk away. Not in a defiant way, but in a scared way. Like, 'Leave me alone.' "

Acquaintances of the family have provided a clearer picture of Lanza, 20, as investigators attempt to retrace his path last week from the spacious home where he shot his mother multiple times to a nearby elementary school. There, he fatally shot 26 students and staff members and then killed himself.

When Lanza would have one of his "episodes," Novia said, he would telephone Nancy Lanza. She was "a great parent," he said, and would often come within minutes, sitting with her son and making him feel better.

"She could pull him back in line," Novia said.

Lanza appears to have left high school early, and at age 16 began taking classes at Western Connecticut State University in nearby Danbury, where he earned a B-plus average.

He dropped out of German as he was about to fail the class but earned an A-minus in American history and a B in macroeconomics. He took his last class at the university in summer 2009, the year before he would have been a senior in high school.

Starting college at 16 would have been jarring, Novia said, especially as Lanza's older brother left for college and later for a job in Manhattan, and their parents separated, leaving Lanza at home with his mother. His parents divorced in 2009.

"If I was to read the situation, he found himself so far disconnected from the world with no possibility of interaction. I'm sure he did not make friends well in a college setting," Novia said.

Lanza, was fond of joining "LAN parties" - short for Local Area Network - in which students would gather at someone's house and hook up their computers into a small network. They played strategy games such as World of Warcraft and Mario Party.

"We were not in favour of first-person shooter games," said one of those who played with Lanza, Joshua Milas.

Lanza's older brother, Ryan Lanza, 24, was also a member of the tech club.

"Ryan was outgoing, energetic, well respected, recognised for his talents," Novia said. Ryan took care of his brother but Novia said he heard they had become estranged in recent years.

"There's obviously dysfunction between the siblings," Novia said.

"I could very easily see Ryan saying, 'Enough is enough. I've been your caregiver when I was supposed to be a teenager. I've got a life to live.' "

Nancy Lanza struggled to take care of her son and live a life of her own, friends said.

John Bergquist, who got to know Nancy Lanza at a neighbourhood bar, described her as a New Hampshire farm girl turned sophisticate.

She was a Red Sox fan with season tickets who travelled to ride hot air balloons, attend jazz concerts in New Orleans, and visit friends in London, New York and San Francisco, sometimes taking her older son Ryan with her, he said.

She drove a silver BMW. She also hunted with falcons.

Lanza had a soft side when it came to her younger son, he said.

"She always spoke very lovingly about him. She was devoted to him, catering to him and his limitations," he said.

"He wasn't troubled or violent in any way - he was a normal kid with a disability ... He had trouble being with people."

Nancy Lanza appeared to have decided to move so that Adam could attend college in another state. She was looking at schools in Washington state and North Carolina.

"She was willing to uproot her life," Bergquist said.

"Nancy pretty much made it clear that she needed to be with him (Adam) because he couldn't handle being on his own."

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China cracks down on doomsday rumours

CHINA has detained dozens of people, some of whom it terms doomsday cult members, as part of a nationwide crackdown on rumours about a supposed forthcoming apocalypse, state media say.

Authorities in five different areas have detained 52 people for spreading predictions of a December 21 "doomsday" linked to the ancient Mayan calendar, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.

The apocalypse predictions have received widespread coverage in China, thanks in part to the success of the Hollywood disaster film 2012, which was partly-inspired by the supposed Mayan prophecy.

Those detained include 34 people in the eastern province of Fujian, and two in the central city of Wuhan who handed out leaflets about the apocalypse at transport facilities, the report said.

"People have fabricated and spread rumours about the 'end of the world', caused trouble by tricking people out of money, and disturbed social order," the report cited police in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing as saying.

A Christian group known as "Almighty God", which state-run media has labelled an "evil cult" - the same description it applies to the banned Falun Gong sect - has also been targeted in the pre-doomsday crackdown, with reports of dozens of arrests last week.

Thirty-seven Almighty God members were detained in the northwestern province of Qinghai, the state-run Global Times daily said, adding that the group predicts three days of darkness will begin on December 21.

The group has called on its members to overthrow China's ruling Communist Party, which it refers to as "the big red dragon", and tells believers that a new era, presided over by a "female Jesus", has arrived.

"A big eye was found in the sun on December 9 in Beijing, and female Jesus manifested herself with her name. Great Tsunamis and earthquakes are about to happen around the world," the Global Times reported a text message sent by Almighty God members as saying.

The ruling communist party does not tolerate challenges to its authority and has brutally cracked down on religious groups including the Buddhist-inspired Falun Gong, which was banned in the late 1990s.

China has a long history of religiously-inspired anti-government movements, most notably the 19th century Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, led by a Christian convert who gathered hundreds of thousands of followers in an attempt to overthrow the emperor.

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US school victims mostly six years old

Police say the gunman who shot dead 20 school children at a US school forced his way in. Source: AAP

SHATTERED families and grieving residents are devastated that most of the 27 people shot dead by a US school gunman are children aged just six and seven.

President Barack Obama is due to join the vigils in the small Connecticut community of Newtown on Sunday, to lead national mourning after this latest massacre that has revived calls for a debate on gun control.

But the political ramifications of the tragedy are far from the minds of most in this picturesque town, where parents of the survivors and the dead are struggling to come to terms with the stunning loss.

Robbie Parker, a 30-year-old hospital assistant who cares for sick newborns, says the death of his loving six-year-old Emilie should "inspire us to be better, more compassionate and caring toward other people."

He included the family of the apparent shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, in his condolences, addressing them through the news media to say: "I can't imagine how hard this experience must be for you."

Robert and Diane Licata described how their six-year-old son Aiden ran past the shooter in his classroom doorway to escape after seeing his teacher gunned down - and recounted their desperate search for him.

Diane Licata told CNN she had rushed to the school to see her daughter led out of the building but there was no sign of Aiden.

"So the kids start to come out and when I saw her, you know, the sense of relief is incredible, but it's really short-lived because I still have one in there. And I'm waiting for him to come. And he didn't come out," she said.

"When you're standing there waiting....it's an indescribable feeling of helplessness."

Licata eventually received a text that her son was safe at a nearby police station.

Aiden was later able to explain his escape.

She said his class heard noises that initially sounded like hammers.

"Then they realised that it was gunshots."

"Aiden's teacher had the presence of mind to move all of the children to a distance away from the door... and that's when the gunman burst in," Licata said.

The gunman had "no facial expressions" she said, adding that he "proceeded to shoot their teacher."

Many US children are taught how to react during an emergency, so Aiden and his classmates quickly made their way to the door where the gunman was standing and ran past him. Some of them survived.

"He (Aiden) really, really, really cared about his teacher. He knows that she's been hurt but he doesn't know the end result. He knows the kids that he saw getting shot."

A police spokesman said Lanza is believed to have shot his mother at the home they shared before launching his attack at the nearby school.

He had two handguns but the coroner told reporters that most of the children and staff were killed by multiple gunshots from his assault rifle, a .223 calibre Bushmaster, a civilian version of the US military's M4.

Lanza's father Peter expressed shock and grief at the horror caused by his son.

"No words can truly express how heartbroken we are," he said in a statement vowing to continue co-operating with law enforcement.

"We, too, are asking why?"

Connecticut State Police released the identity of the victims, aged six to 56. They included 16 six-year-olds and four seven-year-olds.

Twelve of the 20 slain children were girls and eight were boys.

The six adults killed were all women, including the school's principal and its psychologist.

The motives of the shooter are still the biggest mystery.

Asked whether any suicide note, emails or other clues to the killer's mind had been found, Connecticut State Police spokesman Lieutenant J Paul Vance said investigators have gathered "some very good evidence."

Lanza was a shy, awkward and nerdy boy but hadn't apparently given any warning sign that he was a mass murderer.

The weapons, news reports said, were registered in his mother's name but she was widely seen as an upstanding resident in the town.

The tragedy drew messages of support from around the world, and candlelight vigils are being held.

Of all US campus shootings, the toll was second only to the 32 murders in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech University.

The latest number far exceeded the 15 killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which triggered a fierce but inconclusive debate about gun control laws in the United States.

However, the White House has scotched any suggestion that the politically explosive subject would be quickly reopened.

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Man critical after Tas double murder

A man and woman have been found dead in an apparent double murder northwest of Hobart, police say. Source: AAP

A MAN remains in a critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head and a man and woman in their thirties are dead in a double murder that has shaken a small Tasmanian town.

The bodies of a woman, 31, and a man, 34, were found at a property on Hamilton Plains Road at Hamilton, a small rural town 70km from Hobart, about 5am (AEDT) on Sunday.

The suspected gunman, a 59-year-old shearer, was previously in a relationship with the dead woman.

He was found at Lachlan, 45km away, lying beside a car pulled over to the side of the road, with a gunshot wound to the head.

Locals at Hamilton, which has a population of 300, say those who know the couple have been shocked by their deaths.

"It's not a nice thing to happen in the town," one local told AAP.

The woman's partner had been a local football player.

Detective-Inspector Colin Riley said the older man's gunshot wound was inflicted shortly before or just as a police car arrived.

The man was under police guard at Royal Hobart Hospital and in a critical condition after surgery.

Det Insp Riley said the woman's nine-year-old daughter called police using a mobile phone.

"It appears to me that the nine-year-old heard what occurred in the house and we are still ascertaining ... what was seen by that child," he told reporters at Hamilton.

He said the dead couple had been in a relationship and living in the Hamilton house for about four months.

There had been no reports of violence involving the dead woman and her alleged killer.

The children, including another daughter, believed to be aged about 13, who was not in the house at the time of the incident, were being cared for by their grandparents.

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Croc bites boy at NT billabong

A TEENAGE boy has been airlifted to hospital after he was attacked by a crocodile in a remote part of the Northern Territory.

The 16-year-old boy was bitten on the leg by the one-metre-long croc while hunting at a billabong in the remote community of Ramingining in Arnhem Land on Sunday.

Careflight said the boy was treated at a local clinic before being flown to Royal Darwin Hospital where he remains in a stable condition.

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400 asylum seekers reach Italian island

TWO boats carrying more than 400 African migrants have arrived on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, the latest in a wave of thousands of undocumented migrants arriving from North African shores.

The boats were intercepted on Saturday by Italian coast guards in open sea south of the rocky outcrop, which is closer to Africa than to the Italian mainland.

The first boat carried 218 sub-Saharan migrants including seven women.

The second boat, which was some 20 metres long, had around 220 people including 20 women, Italian news agency ANSA reported, citing the coast guard.

Most of the recent Lampedusa arrivals have been on boats coming from Libya.

Migrants are usually taken to a small facility on Lampedusa and then to centres for asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants in other parts of Italy.

The charity Save the Children on Thursday said the situation was "chaotic", with 722 migrants still on the island including 102 women and 15 unaccompanied minors, and urged the government to transfer them to better accommodation.

Tens of thousands of migrants landed on Italian shores last year in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Thousands more have arrived this year despite Italy's calls for Tunisia and Libya to step up their maritime border controls.

Hundreds have died over the past two years in the perilous Mediterranean crossings, when their heavily overcrowded dinghies and fishing boats capsized or sank in stormy weather or were cast adrift due to engine failure.

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