Boy, 13, drives father's Merc to Germany

A 13-YEAR-OLD boy has run away from his adoptive parents in Italy, driving his father's Mercedes 1000 kilometres towards his native Poland before being stopped in Germany.

The boy - a go-kart enthusiast - managed to pass motorway toll booths and cross two international borders in his two-day drive across northern Italy, Austria and half of Germany.

"He looks like a 16-year-old, but still! He managed to fuel up and pass two borders. It's just incredible," Eleonora Spadati, head of local Carabinieri police in Montebelluna in northeast Italy where the boy ran from, told AFP on Saturday.

Spadati said the boy missed Poland and wanted to see his biological sister.

Just before leaving on Thursday with just 200 euros ($A252.14) in his pocket and a passport, he had also argued with his parents after they confiscated his mobile phone as a punishment for topping up its credit without their consent.

The boy's parents quickly realised he might have tried to go to Poland and contacted local Italian police, asking for an alert along his possible route.

German traffic police picked him up just 200 kilometres from the Polish border on Friday.

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French forces stop Mali Islamist advance

MALIAN troops were poised on Saturday to reclaim a key town from Islamists threatening to advance on the capital after France sent in its air force, opening a dramatic new phase in the months-old conflict.

Witnesses and the Malian army said dozens of Islamist fighters were killed in the battle for Konna, one of the worst clashes since the start of the crisis almost a year ago and the most significant setback inflicted on the Islamists.

US officials said Washington might support France's sudden military involvement to help Bamako wrest northern Mali back from al Qaeda-linked groups, while Nigeria also said it had dispatched personnel on the ground.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Operation Serval had already claimed its first French casualty when a pilot carrying raids to support Malian ground troops fighting for Konna was killed on Friday.

France also said it had deployed troops in Bamako, which has remained under government control since Islamist groups seized half of the country in March to protect its 6000-strong expatriate community.

A senior Malian officer in the region told AFP that the army was now fully in control of the town, after spending the best part of Saturday flushing out the last pockets of resistance.

"We control the town, all of it," said Lieutenant Ousmane Fane, a member of the Mopti regional command.

"We have claimed dozens of casualties, even around 100 among Islamist ranks in Konna."

Witnesses reached by AFP spoke of dozens of bodies strewn across the area, with one resident counting 46 dead Islamists.

The town, which had fallen into insurgents' hands on Thursday, is some 700km from Bamako but was seen as one of the last ramparts against an Islamist advance.

Mali's armed forces had been in disarray since a March coup and seemed powerless against a rebellion of seasoned mainly Tuareg fighters, but France's shock intervention tipped the power balance.

"The helicopters struck the insurgents' vehicles, which dispersed. The army is mopping up the city," a Malian military source said.

"During this intense combat, one of our pilots ... was fatally wounded," Le Drian told a press conference in Paris.

Groups with ties to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) overpowered a secular Tuareg rebellion in March 2012 and seized control of a territory the size of France.

They have since destroyed centuries-old mausoleums which they see as a heresy in the fabled city of Timbuktu and imposed an extreme form of Islamic law -- or sharia -- in the main towns, flogging, amputating and sometimes executing transgressors.

The collapse of a nation seen as a democratic success story in the region sparked Western fears that northern Mali could become a major launchpad for global terrorist attacks.

The United States, former colonial power France -- which has eight hostages in the Sahel -- and the rest of the European Union had looked set to let the regional bloc ECOWAS take the lead on any military intervention, which appeared at least several months away.

The UN Security Council had okayed the regional mission but Mali's interim administration had warned it could not afford to wait months for a game-changer.

"Our choice is peace ... but they have forced war on us. We will carry out a crushing and massive retaliation against our enemies," Mali's interim leader, Dioncounda Traore, said in an address to the nation on Friday.

On Saturday he thanked France for its intervention.

French army chief Edouard Guillaud, speaking at the same briefing as the defence minister, said the operation had a tactical command in Mali.

French President Francois Hollande, who has struggled on the domestic front and seen his popularity hit record lows, said French forces would remain involved as long as necessary.

Nigeria's presidency on Saturday confirmed it had sent an air force technical team and the commander of the planned ECOWAS force to Mali.

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Single parents to protest over payments

WELFARE advocates are planning to protest around Australia next month over the government's cuts to single parent benefits.

From January 1, single parents have not been eligible for the Parenting payment once their youngest child has turned eight years old and have been transferred to the lower Newstart allowance.

More than 60,000 single parents now receive between $60 to $100 a week less under entitlement changes.

The single parents action group (SPAG) are organising rallies in all major cities on February 5 to push for the government to reverse its decision, with the main protest at Parliament House in Canberra.

Protest organiser Samantha Seymour said the payment changes would have a detrimental impact on single parent families.

"Our purpose is to show the government that we will not tolerate their decision to further deprive and isolate Australians whose only crime is being single parents," Ms Seymour said in a statement on Sunday.

Families spokeswoman for the Australian Greens, Rachel Siewert, said she was concerned about the long-term impact of the lower Newstart payments on parents and their children.

"We shouldn't be condemning people to poverty," Senator Siewert said in a statement.

She said the government should reverse these payment cuts and also boost the Newstart allowance by $50 a week.

The government introduced the changes, worth around $728 million in savings over four years, in its bid for a budget surplus in 2012/13.

Last December, Treasurer Wayne Swan said the government was unlikely to have a surplus this financial year due to lower than forecast tax revenue.

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Savile's victims set to seek damages

AROUND 50 victims of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile are set to seek damages from the late broadcaster's estate and from organisations including the BBC and Britain's health service, their lawyer said.

A report by British police on Friday said Savile "groomed the nation" over six decades, hiding behind his fame to assault girls, boys and adult women on BBC premises and in schools and hospitals.

Liz Dux, a lawyer representing more than 50 of Savile's victims, said that because Savile had died in 2011 aged 84, civil claims were the only way that they could get justice.

"Compensation is not at the forefront of their mind, but of course it's the only method of recompense that we can get for them now, given that he can't be prosecuted," she said.

Dux said they would consider making claims against Savile's heirs, against the BBC -- the publicly funded UK broadcaster that made Savile one of its biggest stars in the 1970s and 1980s -- and the state-run National Health Service.

"We now have to look at what was known in the organisations. Once these inquiries have taken place then we will be able to make progress with the civil claims.

"Those inquiries are hugely important to the evidence and it will be foolhardy to press ahead straight away with the civil claims now without that evidence coming forward.

"A moratorium has been agreed in respect of the majority of the potential defendants to await the outcome of the inquiry."

In the three-month investigation by police and the NSPCC children's charity, it emerged that Savile used his fame as presenter of BBC TV's Top of the Pops chart show and children's program Jim'll Fix It to rape and assault victims on BBC premises as well as in schools and hospitals where he did charity work.

The report recorded 214 criminal offences, including 34 rapes -- 28 of them of children. Three-quarters of the victims were children, mostly girls aged between 13 and 16, but the youngest was an eight-year-old boy.

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Beijing pollution at dangerous levels

DENSE fog has enveloped swathes of east and central China, with pollution levels in Beijing reaching dangerous levels for a second day and residents advised to stay indoors, state media reports.

The municipal environment warning centre issued an alert on Saturday advising the elderly, children, and those suffering respiratory or cardiovascular illness in the capital to avoid going out or doing strenuous exercise, Xinhua reported.

Those who did venture out wore facemasks for protection, with visibility low, the skyline shrouded, and the sun hidden in the smog.

Air quality in Beijing showed airborne particles with a diameter small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs at a reading of 456 micrograms per cubic metre. The quality is considered good when the figure stands at less than 100.

The heavy pollution is expected to last another three days, with weather conditions preventing pollutants from dispersing, the warning centre said, according to Xinhua.

Fog in several provinces in east and central China closed numerous highways and delayed flights, it said.

China's air quality is among the worst in the world, international organisations say, citing massive coal consumption and car-choked city streets in the world's biggest auto market.

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Arthur Highway to reopen Sunday night

TASMANIAN police are planning to reopen the Arthur Highway on the bushfire-ravaged Tasman Peninsular for general access from 6pm on Sunday.

They say the opening will be confirmed after an assessment of prevailing fire and wind conditions during the afternoon.

They're also warning that there will be a number of work crews on the highway on Monday particularly between Sugarloaf Road and the Dunally Bridge, and people planning to travel on it should expect delays.

The crews will be working to restore essential services on the peninsular after more than week of bushfires.

The highway will have a speed limit of 60 kilometers per hour, and some areas may be signposted at 40 due to the works. Police warn the limits will be enforced.

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Zeman, Schwarzenberg top Czech vote

CZECH rivals Milos Zeman, a former premier and veteran left-winger, and right-wing Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, topped the results of the presidential election Saturday and will face off in a run-off later this month.

Zeman, 68, garnered 25 per cent of votes while Schwarzenberg, 75, scored 21.2 per cent, the Czech Statistical Office said, with 75 per cent of ballots counted after the two-day first round wound up.

The second-round run-off is scheduled for January 25-26.

Former centre-right prime minister Jan Fischer, who had led opinion polls ahead the vote, scored 17.06 per cent, ahead of leftist senator Jiri Dienstbier with 16.7 per cent.

"Jan Fischer was rather weak in debates. Confronted with his rivals, he didn't offer much," Tomas Lebeda, a political analyst at Charles University in Prague, told public broadcaster Czech Television.

Vladimir Franz, an eccentric artist who is tattooed head-to-toe, was running fifth among the nine contenders with seven per cent support in the vote whose turnout topped 60 per cent.

The winner will replace outgoing eurosceptic Vaclav Klaus, whose mandate expires on March 7.

The Czech Republic is an ex-communist NATO and EU member with population of 10.5 million.

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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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