Giant tuna sells for record $1.7m

A monster bluefin tuna sold for a record-breaking $1.7 million in the year's first auction at Japan's Tsukiji fish market, nearly three times the previous high set last year.

The 222-kilogram fish, caught off Japan's northern city of Oma, fetched a winning bid of 155.4 million yen ($1.7 million), said an official at the Tokyo fish market.

The figure dwarfs the previous high of 56.49 million yen paid at last year's inaugural auction at Tsukiji, a huge working market that features on many Tokyo tourist itineraries.

The winning bidder was Kiyoshi Kimura, president of the company that runs the popular Sushi-Zanmai chain, who also won the auction for last year's record-breaking bluefin.

"I wanted to meet expectations of my customers who said they wanted to eat Japan's best tuna again this year," Mr Kimura was quoted by Jiji Press as saying after the intense pre-dawn bidding.

"With this good tuna, I hope to help cheer up Japan," Mr Kimura said.

Based on the price paid - around 700,000 yen per kilogram - a single slice of sushi from the monster fish would cost diners as much as 30,000 yen.

But Mr Kimura plans to sell it at a huge loss, for a more realistic price of up to 398 yen per portion, local media reported.

Bluefin is usually the most expensive fish available at Tsukiji.

Decades of overfishing have seen global tuna stocks crash, leading some Western nations to call for a ban on catching endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Japan consumes three-quarters of the global bluefin catch, a highly prized sushi ingredient known in Japan as "kuro maguro" (black tuna) and dubbed by sushi connoisseurs the "black diamond" because of its scarcity.

A piece of "otoro" or fatty underbelly can cost some 2000 yen at high-end Tokyo restaurants.

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Thousands stuck in airport as China freezes

THOUSANDS of angry passengers were stranded after heavy fog delayed flights at a Chinese airport, as the country was shivered through its coldest weather in almost three decades.

Ten thousand passengers were stuck in Changshui International Airport in the southern Chinese city of Kunming on Saturday morning after thick fog grounded more than 280 flights, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Angry passengers stranded at the airport for more than a day struggled with airline staff, damaging computer equipment belonging to an airline, while police broke up scuffles, a photographer present at the scene late on Friday said.

"The passengers were really furious, they kept going to the service desk to ask for information, but didn't get any answers," the photographer said.

Flights at the airport resumed on Saturday afternoon after the fog lifted, Xinhua said.

China is suffering its coldest winter for 28 years, the news agency on Saturday quoted China's Meteorological Administration as saying.

Temperatures recorded over the country since November have averaged minus 3.8 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit), while northeast China saw average temperatures of minus 15.3 degrees Celsius, its coldest winter for 43 years.

Plunging temperatures trapped around 1000 ships in sea ice off eastern China's Shandong province this week, Xinhua reported, while snowfall delayed more than 140 flights in Beijing last month, the China Daily said.

An annual Ice and Snow Festival in the northeastern city of Harbin, famous for its enormous ice-sculptures, is scheduled to open today, as temperatures in the city fall below minus 24 degrees Celsius.

Temperatures in northern China are expected to pick up next week, although parts of south China will continue to experience snow, Xinhua reported.

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Trial begins for Indian rape accused

AN INDIAN public prosecutor says there is strong forensic evidence against five men accused of gang-raping a student in New Delhi on a moving bus as their trial begins in a city court.

A district magistrate hearing the case took note of the charges including rape and murder overnight, signalling the start of the trial, and ordered the men to appear before her for the first time on Monday.

"We have filed all the evidence," Rajiv Mohan, additional public prosecutor, told the court in Saket in the south of the city.

"The blood of the victim tallied with the stains found on the clothes of the accused," he added, saying that a DNA test had been conducted by the police.

He also said that police had recovered possessions stolen from the victim and her boyfriend, who were thrown out of the vehicle at the end of their ordeal.

As well as the forensic and other evidence, the woman's boyfriend has testified to police and has reportedly identified the culprits.

Mohan said that the woman had died last weekend of "septicemia (blood poisoning) from multi-organ failure due to multi-organ injury" after she was repeatedly raped and violated with an iron bar.

Presiding magistrate Namrita Aggarwal confirmed she had "taken cognisance" of the charges, adding that this meant the trial had begun.

"They (the suspects) will be produced in court on Monday," she added.

The men, aged from 19 to 35, had been expected to be tried in a different fast-track court amid a clamour for their conviction and warnings from the chief justice that due processes must be followed.

A sixth suspect arrested by police is believed to be a minor, but he is undergoing a bone test to check his age.

Executions are rare in India, but can be sanctioned for the "rarest of rare" crimes.

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Merkel kicks off German campaigning

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel is highlighting Germany's economic strength and dismissing worries that her party could be dragged down by its struggling coalition partner as she kicks off campaigning for an important state election.

Mrs Merkel's centre-right coalition faces a tough battle to extend its 10-year hold on Lower Saxony state in the Jan. 20 election.

Polls suggest the centre-left opposition has a good chance of winning - giving it a significant boost ahead of September national elections in which Mrs Merkel will seek a third term.

Mrs Merkel, speaking after her conservative Christian Democrats' leadership met in Lower Saxony, criticised opposition plans for tax increases.

Mrs Merkel's party leads polls in Lower Saxony and nationally but its junior partner, the pro-market Free Democratic Party, is very weak.

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Iran building software to control networking sites

IRAN'S police chief says the Islamic Republic is developing new software to control social networking sites.

Gen. Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam was quoted in Iranian newspapers as saying the new software will prevent Iranians from being exposed to malicious content online while allowing users to enjoy the benefits of the Internet. He did not say when the software would be introduced.

Gen. Moghadam also did not specify which social networking sites would be affected, but both Facebook and Twitter are popular in Iran.

Iranians currently have access to most of the Internet, although authorities block some sites affiliated with the opposition, as well as those that are seen as promoting dissent or considered morally corrupt.

Iran created a government agency last year to oversee Internet usage in the country.

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Five die in plane crash in French Alps

POLICE say five people have died after their plane crashed shortly after taking off from an airport in the French Alps.

The plane crashed in a forest in an uninhabited area outside Grenoble, a city that is the gateway to the mountain resorts of the Alps in southeastern France.

An official with the French gendarmerie said the plane crashed shortly after it took off from Grenoble's airport. Everyone aboard died.

It was not clear what kind of plane they were flying. The identities of the victims were not immediately known.

The official would only give the information on condition of anonymity because of police rules.

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Obama warns on 'dangerous debt game'

US President Barack Obama warned Congressional Republicans overnight against playing a "dangerous game" with the economy as lawmakers prepared for a new battle over the national debt ceiling.

But the Democratic president also congratulated lawmakers for passing an 11th-hour deal that avoided the so-called fiscal cliff.

Signed into law Thursday, the compromise raised taxes on the wealthiest Americans while avoiding a tax hike on the middle class that "could have thrown our economy back into recession," Mr Obama said in his weekly radio address.

But new battles are brewing after the deal delayed by two months a debate over raising the country's $US16.4 trillion borrowing limit and more than $US100 billion in automatic spending cuts for military and domestic programs.

If Congress fails to clinch a deal to allow more government borrowing, it risks causing the government to default on its bills and financial obligations.

Republicans, who accepted the fiscal cliff deal without any significant spending cuts, are now demanding concessions on expenditures in return for allowing the ceiling to rise.

Yet Mr Obama vowed that he "will not compromise" on insisting that Congress raise the federal debt ceiling. The US credit rating was downgraded in 2011 when lawmakers threatened to leave the debt ceiling as it stood.

"If Congress refuses to give the United States the ability to pay its bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy could be catastrophic," he said.

"Our families and our businesses cannot afford that dangerous game again."

House Speaker John Boehner has warned Republicans will ask for "significant spending cuts" and reforms of expensive programs that provide pensions and health care services for the elderly.

Mr Obama said he backs spending cuts, but insists he will not shortchange education, job training, research and technology.

"Spending cuts must be balanced with more reforms to our tax code," he said.

"The wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations shouldn't be able to take advantage of loopholes and deductions that aren't available to most Americans."

In the Republican address, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan said that in addressing the debt limit, lawmakers "must identify responsible ways to tackle Washington's wasteful spending."

And he said American families know that "when you have no more money in your account and your credit cards are maxed out, then the spending must stop."

China is the largest foreign holder of US debt, owning about $US1.2 trillion in US treasury bills, notes and bonds, according to the Treasury Department. In total, China owns about eight percent of publicly held US debt.

Camp accused the president and Democratic lawmakers of refusing to take "any meaningful steps to make Washington live within its means" and urged them to reconsider their position and join the fight on "wasteful spending."

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