UK PM urges Argentina to respect vote

David Cameron has urged Argentina to respect the wishes of Falklands residents after referendum. Source: AAP

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron has urged Argentina to respect the wishes of residents of the Falkland Islands after they voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to remain a British territory.

Before the result on Tuesday, Buenos Aires had dismissed the vote as meaningless in international law, saying it would not affect its claims on the South Atlantic archipelago.

But Cameron said the 98.8 per cent "yes" vote, on a turnout of 92 per cent, was "the clearest possible result there could be" and Argentina should respect that.

"They should take careful note of this result. The Falkland Islanders couldn't have spoken more clearly," he said in a statement.

"They want to remain British and that view should be respected by everybody, including by Argentina."

He added that he was personally "delighted" at the outcome.

"The Falkland Islands may be thousands of miles away but they are British through and through and that is how they want to stay. People should know we will always be there to defend them," he said.

"We believe in self-determination. The Falkland Islanders have spoken so clearly about their future and now other countries right across the world, I hope, will respect and revere this very, very clear result."

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Hong Kong, China stocks end lower

SHARES in Hong Kong and Shanghai have ended lower as early gains were wiped out by profit-taking and concerns over China's economy following disappointing data at the weekend.

Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 0.87 per cent, or 200.22 points, on Tuesday to end at 22,890.60 on turnover of HK$69.14 billion ($A8.72 billion).

Beijing said on Saturday that inflation hit a 10-month high of 3.2 per cent in February while growth in industrial output and retail sales slowed.

Inflation is a key issue for the ruling Communist Party as it raises the chances of popular discontent over climbing prices and the threat of social unrest. Investors are also worried the government will unveil more tightening measures to temper the rising cost of living.

The results, which follow a string of unimpressive data in recent months, have dampened recent optimism for the economy, which had shown signs of a resurgence at the tailend of 2012 after spending much of it enduring slowing growth.

Concerns over China offset a fifth straight record close for the Dow Jones index on Wall Street, which was boosted by better-than-expected jobs figures on Friday.

"Confidence in China's growth recovery has taken a setback after the latest economic data," Sun Hung Kai Financial wealth-management strategist Daniel So told Dow Jones Newswires.

"There is a lot of wait and see going on. Investors are eyeing blue-chip results for trading cues; waiting for the conclusion of the National People's Congress on (March 17) for some policy clarity."

Hong Kong railway operator MTR Corp fell 2.3 per cent to HK$31.95 after reporting 2012 underlying profit declined 6.6 per cent. China Cosco, the mainland's largest shipping company by fleet size, slumped 5.3 per cent to HK$4.08.

Oi Wah Pawnshop Credit surged 33.7 per cent to HK$1.31 on its trading debut. The firm's 100 million-share offering was oversubscribed more than 1,000 times.

Chinese shares fell 1.04 per cent. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 23.98 points to end at 2,286.61 on turnover of 100.6 billion yuan ($A15.84 billion).

Financial stocks led the declines. Industrial Bank dropped 2.83 per cent to 18.55 yuan while China Everbright Securities fell 1.42 per cent to 13.92 yuan.

China Life Insurance lost 1.68 per cent to 17.58 yuan, while wastewater treatment firm Beijing Capital dropped 1.85 per cent to 6.91 yuan and pollution control equipment maker Fujian Longking lost 1.70 per cent to 38.23 yuan.

Media firms were lower on profit-taking. Zhejiang Daily Media Group lost 4.45 per cent to 15.23 yuan.

China Animal Husbandry Industry lost 3.62 per cent to 14.65 yuan, while Inner Mongolia Jinyu fell 4.04 per cent to 18.76 yuan.

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Five NATO soldiers die in Afghan crash

AT least 21 people, including seven foreign troops, have been killed in a single day in Afghanistan.

In separate incidents on Monday, five NATO soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash, a landmine and mortar round killed at least six civilians and 10 people died in a shootout at a joint Afghan-US military base.

The melee at the base in Jalrez district of Wardak province occurred when a policeman opened fire at Afghan and US troops.

Naqibullah Haidari, the district governor, said on Tuesday that at least 10 people were killed in the skirmishes.

He said the attacker, Nasir Ahmad, had been working at the district police headquarters for more than a year.

"He stood on top of a police ranger and took control of the PK machine gun attached to the vehicle," Haidari said.

Two US special forces members, three Afghan policemen and three Afghan army commandos were killed.

Haidari said helicopters flying over the base killed two civilians and injured four others.

The district police chief had also been injured, along with an officer and two Afghan interpreters for the foreign soldiers.

The incident in Wardak was the latest in a series of attacks on coalition troops by members of the Afghan forces.

Last week, three Afghan soldiers opened fire on foreign troops outside a US base in Kapisa, killing a civilian NATO contractor.

Elsewhere, five soldiers killed late on Monday in a helicopter crash in the southern province of Kandahar were believed to be US troops, provincial police chief Abdul Raziq said.

Bad weather and technical problems were likely the cause of the crash, Raziq said, noting the absence of insurgent activity in the area.

NATO also said initial reports indicated no enemy activity.

In neighbouring Helmand province, a landmine detonated late on Monday under a tractor, killing four civilians, the Interior Ministry said.

A mortar round also hit a house on Monday in Helmand, killing two civilians, it said.

The ministry blamed "enemies of Afghanistan," a term it uses for Taliban militants, and said five women were among the civilians killed.

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Halal food label withdrawn in Sri Lanka

ISLAMIC clerics have withdrawal a halal labelling system for food in Sri Lanka "in the interests of peace" after protests from Buddhist hardliners on the Indian Ocean island.

The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), Sri Lanka's main body of Islamic clergy, said on Monday the halal certificate issued by them would be used only for products that are exported to Islamic countries.

"We are giving up what is important to us. We are making a sacrifice in the interest of peace and harmony," ACJU president Mufti Rizwe said, adding they were keen to avoid any escalation of religious tensions.

Food manufacturers in Sri Lanka have long made all their products using halal methods and labelled them with the ACJU halal certificate.

They argued it is impractical and uneconomical to have two manufacturing processes for the same product.

The halal method of killing an animal requires its throat to be slit and the blood to be drained.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said that manufacturers agreed to drop the halal logo from all food with immediate effect.

Nationalist Buddhist monks and their supporters had launched a campaign last month to boycott halal-slaughtered meat, as well as other products that carry a halal certificate.

The monks argue Buddhists should not be forced to consume food that is prepared according to Islamic rites, saying it demonstrates the undue influence of Muslims in Sri Lanka.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is a Buddhist, had urged monks not to incite religious hatred.

Sri Lanka is 70 per cent Buddhist, while Muslims comprise less than 10 per cent of the population of 20 million.

The island suffered a bloody ethnic war between 1972 and 2009, pitting mostly Hindu ethnic Tamils against the Sinhalese Buddhist majority in violence that claimed at least 100,000 lives.

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Jets bomb Homs district in Syria

SYRIAN jets have bombed Baba Amr in Homs city in a bid to repulse a rebel attack on the strategic neighbourhood, a watchdog says, as Al-Qaeda claimed the killing of 48 Syrian soldiers on Iraqi territory.

On the diplomatic front, a top Syrian opposition official met Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday in a bid to reverse Moscow's refusal to back calls on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Rebels launched a surprise assault on Baba Amr at dawn on Sunday, hoping to take back the neighbourhood which they lost to Assad's forces a year ago.

The regime responded by waves of shelling, launching air strikes and sending reinforcements which had "completely sealed" the city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that fighting flared throughout the night.

"The army will at all costs hunt down the rebels even if it destroys the neighbourhood," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

"The regime cannot allow them to stay ... because the neighbourhood of Baba Amr is known as an (anti-regime) symbol in the international media."

The Observatory said at least 175 people were killed across Syria on Sunday - 79 regime soldiers, 50 rebels and 46 civilians.

Regime troops seized Baba Amr from rebels just over a year ago after a bloody month-long siege that left the district in ruins and claimed hundreds of lives, including those of two foreign journalists.

Iraq meanwhile was set to be dragged into the deadly Syrian conflict despite its efforts not to be become entangled in the bloodletting across its borders.

On Monday, Al-Qaeda front group in Iraq claimed an attack on a convoy in the west of Iraq that killed 48 Syrian soldiers and nine Iraqi guards, in a statement posted on jihadist forums.

The soldiers, who were wounded and received treatment in Iraq, were being transported through the western province of Anbar on their way back to Syria when the attack took place on March 4, according to the Iraqi defence ministry.

But the ministry blamed the attack on a "terrorist group that infiltrated into Iraqi territory coming from Syria."

The statement on jihadist forums said that Islamic State of Iraq fighters were able to destroy a column of "the Safavid army with its associated vehicles" carrying "members of the Nusairi army and Syrian regime 'shabiha.'"

Safavid is a word implying Shi'ites are under Iranian control, while Nusairi is a derogatory term for Alawites, the sect to which Syrian President Bashar al-Assad belongs, and shabiha is a name used for Syrian pro-regime militia forces.

Baghdad has consistently avoided joining calls for the departure of Assad, saying it opposes arming either side and urging an end to the violence that has ravaged Syria for the past two years, leaving at least 70,000 people dead.

Baghdad is caught between conflicting pressures over Syria - its powerful eastern neighbour, Shi'ite Iran, backs Assad's regime, while the United States and many Arab states want Assad to bow to opposition demands and step down.

On the diplomatic front, Haytham Manna of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change - an anti-Assad group tolerated by the regime as it opposes the armed conflict - said he thought the road to peace in Syria ran through Moscow.

"We have always said that a peaceful political solution goes through Moscow," Manna told Lavrov in opening remarks of their meeting in Moscow at the Russian foreign ministry.

"A military solution is still being enforced on the ground. But the predominant majority of Syrians are convinced that a political solution is desirable, that it will save us, and that it stands a real chance."

Russia has vetoed three UN resolutions sanctioning Assad for the violence and has said it viewed pressure on him to step down as undue foreign interference.

Lavrov gave no sign on Monday that Moscow was ready to ease its stance in regard to its traditional Arab ally two years into the conflict.

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ICAC probe to hurt federal Labor: Faulkner

A CORRUPTION inquiry involving two former NSW ministers will damage the Labor party at the federal election, senator John Faulkner believes.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has probed claims then mines minister Ian Macdonald rigged a 2008 tender process for a coal exploration licence in the state's upper Hunter.

It has also looked into how former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid and his family stood to make up to $100 million from the deal.

Senator Faulkner told ABC's Four Corners program on Monday night Obeid at one time "was running the show" in the NSW Labor government.

"I've been a pretty senior figure really in the NSW branch of the Labor Party," Senator Faulkner told the program.

"I've never met him, never spoken to him and I've never heard him make a public speech, but regardless of all that, he ran the NSW Labor Party and ran Labor governments in NSW.

"Labor's standing in the state of NSW has been very, very significantly damaged by the revelations at ICAC," Senator Faulkner said.

"It would be very surprising if that didn't have an impact federally."

Former NSW premiers Bob Carr and Morris Iemma have also traded barbs over Obeid's influence within the party.

Senator Carr, now the foreign affairs minister, has accused Mr Iemma of a serious error by allowing Mr Obeid "special status" in his government.

"I'm sure that Morris Iemma, a very decent - decent and honest figure - would reflect that it was a cardinal mistake to allow Obeid that special status and privilege," Senator Carr told Four Corners.

But Mr Iemma says Mr Obeid had no special access under his premiership.

"He was a cabinet minister in Bob's government. He was a backbencher in my government," Mr Iemma told Fairfax Media.

Mr Iemma said, if anything, Mr Obeid's influence grew after Mr Carr removed him as minister for fisheries and mineral resources.

"I have a distinct recollection of Bob standing up in caucus and saying he wanted Obeid to focus on being a 'good caucus manager'," he said.

Senator Carr issued a statement on Sunday night saying he was "proud to have expelled Eddie Obeid from my cabinet".

"Everyone knows he had no access or influence with me or my office when I was premier," he said.

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Teenager charged with stabbing a man

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a man during a domestic argument in a house at Albury.

Police say they received reports of an argument between a man and a woman on Sunday afternoon in the Albury suburb of Thurgoona.

When they arrived, police and paramedics found a 50-year-old man with a wound to his back.

A teenage boy was taken into custody and charged with wounding a person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

He has been refused bail and will face Albury Childrens Court on Monday.

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Dust storm shrouds Tokyo in haze

A HUGE dust storm has hit Tokyo, blanketing the city with brown dust that darkened the skies and rapidly transformed what had been a clear and sunny day.

Visibility in the capital deteriorated quickly as dry dust particles whirled through the air on Sunday.

Meteorologists said the phenomenon was caused by a sudden cold front, and was not linked with the suffocating pollution that hung over the Chinese capital Beijing last winter.

"A rapidly developing low pressure system in the north was moving down south. It was bringing a snow storm in the north, and strong winds in Tokyo and surrounding areas," said a meteorologist at the Japan Meteorological Agency.

"In the Kanto region (Tokyo and surrounding areas), the strong winds picked up dry dust particles from the ground, which lowered visibility," he said.

The phenomenon was expected to be temporary, and rain should strip the dust from the air, he said.

Japan and other regional countries have however voiced concern about the impact of airborne pollution drifting from their influential neighbour.

The toxic haze that periodically blankets parts of China has been blamed on emissions from coal burning in power stations but also on fumes from vehicles on the traffic-clogged streets of the world's largest auto market.

Media reports have said that environment ministers from Japan, China and South Korea will meet in May to discuss ways to combat air pollution.

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Cyclone Sandra intensifies, no Aust threat

Cyclone Sandra has intensified to a category three cyclone but poses no threat to Australia. Source: AAP

CYCLONE Sandra has intensified to a category three cyclone but poses no threat to Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) says Sandra is likely to reach a category four by early Monday but will be downgraded as it heads towards New Caledonia on Monday and Tuesday.

Senior BoM forecaster Brett Harrison said the cyclone would pass off the west coast of the archipelago.

"It's not likely to hit it directly but would just bring gale force winds and heavy rain," he told AAP.

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$US2.6bn for News Corp publishing unit

The publishing unit being spun off by News Corp will begin operations with $US2.6 billion in cash. Source: AAP

THE newspaper and publishing unit being spun off by media giant News Corp will begin operations with $2.6 billion in cash, according to regulatory documents filed on Friday.

The company to be created by a split of magnate Rupert Murdoch's conglomerate will get a cash infusion when the break-up takes place, the documents showed.

No date was given for the split, but executives have said they hope it will occur before the end of the company fiscal year in June.

The publishing arm, which includes the Wall Street Journal, newspapers in Britain and Australia and education operations, is tentatively being called the New Newscorp in regulatory documents.

"New News Corporation's principal source of liquidity is internally generated funds and cash and cash equivalents on hand," the document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission said.

As part of the separation, the parent company "is expected to make a cash contribution to New News Corporation such that... it expects to have approximately $2.6 billion of cash on hand."

The cash and credit for the new group could be used for acquisitions in the sector, the statement said.

The film and television operations will be part of a larger unit to be known as Fox Group, including the Fox studios and television properties.

"The new News Corporation's strong balance sheet will provide the company with full financial flexibility to pursue its strategic agenda, which is to further develop and expand the power of its market-leading brands over a myriad of platforms," Murdoch said in a statement.

"We believe the new News Corporation's strong balance sheet, along with its diversified revenue base, will be key competitive assets that will allow the company to lead in innovation and the creation of long term shareholder value."

The break-up is seen as a nod to shareholders angered by the reputational damage and costs inflicted by a phone hacking scandal in Britain and because of troubles within the group's publishing arm.

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