Seven dead as bombers target Afghan cops

Matthews' favourite footy moments

PREMIERSHIP player and coach Leigh Matthews looks back at some of his favourite footy moments throughout his AFL career.

Lethal unsure 'to be proud or sad'

LEIGH Matthews' Lions may have paved the way for sports science's cutting edge techniques in Australia - and he's not sure how he feels about that.

Mini devil needs a name

SHE may grow up to be a predator but right now she is one cheeky little devil and you can help name her.

Top Herald Sun Instagram pics

Whatever the story, our Herald Sun photographers hit the road in search of the best pictures around Victoria each week to capture the action that matters to you, as it happens.

I had a dark side on the field: Lethal

LEIGH Mathews looks down to remember. It was a long time ago, but time hasn't faded the recollections of what he did and who he was.

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Sovereign wealth fund boasts 10.6% return

SOVEREIGN wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC) has boasted a 10.6 per cent return on its global investment portfolio in 2012 according to the company's annual report.

The rise is in marked contrast to the previous year when the fund suffered a 4.3 per cent loss, the lowest return since it was launched in 2007.

By the end of 2012, the company's total assets stood at $US575.2 billion ($A625.97 billion), compared to $US482.2 billion by the close of 2011, the report which was put online on Saturday stated.

The figure brings the company's accumulative annualised rate of return since its establishment to five per cent.

The fund was set up six years ago with $US200 billion to make better use of China's colossal foreign exchange reserves which now amount to $US3.4 trillion.

After initially posting 11.7 per cent rises in 2009 and 2010, the fund fared poorly in 2011, hit by difficulties in the global economy and the worsening eurozone debt crisis.

In a statement released with the annual report, Ding Xuedong, CEO and chairman of CIC, said intense market research and effective risk management helped the fund see a good return by the end of the year.

CIC has increasingly invested in the stock markets. By the end of 2012, shares in listed companies accounted for 32 per cent of its overseas portfolio compared to 25 per cent the year before.

Company spokeswoman Liu Fangyu told Xinhua news agency the company also secured a state cash injection of $US19 billion in 2012 in addition to $US30 billion added in 2011.

Other sectors the fund have recently invested in included buying up a 10 per cent stake in Britain's Heathrow Airport and 5.3 percent of the Moscow stock exchange.

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Saudi man dies of MERS virus: ministry

A SAUDI man has died of the coronavirus MERS and another has contracted the virus, the health ministry says, bringing the kingdom's deaths from the virus to 39.

The man, who had previously been diagnosed with the SARS-like virus, died in the southwestern province of Asir, the ministry said on its website on Saturday.

The other man who contracted the virus, 83, is in the same province, it said.

Saudi Arabia is the country worst hit by MERS, which has killed 46 people worldwide.

Out of 89 people who have contracted the virus globally, 68 were registered in Saudi.

Experts are struggling to understand MERS - Middle East Respiratory Syndrome - for which there is no vaccine and which has an extremely high fatality rate of more than 51 per cent.

It is considered a cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8273 people, nine per cent of whom died.

Like SARS, MERS is thought to have jumped from animals to humans, and it shares the former's flu-like symptoms - but differs by also causing kidney failure.

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3 Swiss found dead with wreckage of plane

A WILDLIFE official says three Swiss nationals have been found dead along with the wreckage of their plane that went missing in Kenya.

Paul Mbugua, the spokesman of the Kenya Wildlife Service, said on Saturday a KWS helicopter pilot involved in the search and rescue operation for the plane spotted the wreckage at 11,000 feet on one of the peaks of the Aberdares mountain range in central Kenya.

Mbugua says the helicopter pilot landed at the scene and confirmed the three occupants of the plane had died. Mbugua says the bodies will be retrieved on Sunday.

A county police commander, Naomi Ichama, said on Friday the Cessna 206 was headed to Wilson Airport in Nairobi from Nanyuki in central Kenya when it went missing around 5pm on Thursday.

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Bomber kills one in Somali hospital

A SOMALI police officer says a suicide car bomber has detonated explosives outside a Turkish hospital in Mogadishu killing at least one person and himself and wounding three others.

Mohammed Abdi said on Saturday the bomber drove a mini-van laden with explosives which he detonated at the Al-Shifa hospital.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack but suspicions are likely to fall on al-Shabab insurgents who have been carrying out guerilla attacks since African Union troops expelled them from the capital in August 2011

Al-Shabab, which has links with al-Qaida, has long been threatening Turkish workers and aid agencies in Somalia accusing them of spreading secularism in Somalia.

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Pope calls for dialogue to resolve Brazil

Why Buddy will stay

SHANE CRAWFORD: FOR most of the season I've been fairly fatalistic about Hawthorn's chances of keeping Lance Franklin.

Mini devil needs a name

SHE may grow up to be a predator but right now she is one cheeky little devil and you can help name her.

Meet the Housewives of Melbourne

EXCLUSIVE: IT'S official - the cast of The Real Housewives of Melbourne, a local version of the hit US TV franchise, has been decided. Meet them here.

Cats thrash Saints by 101 points

AT some stage it was going to come. That's just the facts of life when you're playing Geelong at home on the rebound.

Pearson returns to winner's circle

SALLY Pearson has returned to winning form at the Diamond League meet in London - a timely boost with the world titles two weeks away.

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Military judge deliberates in Manning case

A US military judge has begun deciding the fate of Army soldier Bradley Manning, who could face life in prison for giving thousands of pieces of classified military and diplomatic information to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks in one of the largest leaks in American history.

The prosecution says the 25-year-old is a glory-seeking traitor.

His defence lawyers call him a naive whistleblower who was horrified by wartime atrocities but didn't know that the material he leaked would end up in the hands of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

Army Colonel Denise Lind began deliberating on Friday after hearing nearly two months of conflicting evidence and arguments about the 25-year-old intelligence analyst. A military judge, not a jury, is hearing the case at Manning's request.

Lind said she will give a day's public notice before reconvening the court-martial to announce her findings.

The most serious of the 21 charges against Manning is aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence in prison.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a telephone media conference on Friday that if Manning is convicted of aiding the enemy, it will be "the end of national security journalism in the United States".

Prosecutors contend Manning knew the material would be seen across the globe, including by bin Laden, when he started the leaks in late 2009. Manning said he didn't' start leaking until February 2010.

Defence lawyer David Coombs said Manning was negligent in releasing classified material, but lacked the "evil intent" that prosecutors must prove to convict him of aiding the enemy.

Manning also faces federal espionage, theft and computer fraud charges.

He has acknowledged giving WikiLeaks some 700,000 battlefield reports, diplomatic cables and videos, but he says he didn't believe the information would harm troops in Afghanistan and Iraq or threaten national security.

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