Obama expects borrowing limit increase

US President Barack Obama says he doesn't expect Congress to breach the deadline to increase the nation's borrowing limit.

He says he's willing to negotiate changes to his signature health care law and to find ways to reduce spending, but stresses he will not bargain until after Congress reopens the government and passes a new debt ceiling.

Obama says there's a majority of lawmakers in the House who would vote to end the partial government shutdown and raise the credit limit without conditions.

The president spoke during an interview with The Associated Press.

The government is expected to hits its $16.7 trillion debt ceiling in mid-October. Failure to raise it could lead to a first-ever default. Republicans want cuts in federal benefit programs and future deficits in exchange for their votes.

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US House votes to backpay govt workers

THE US House of Representatives has passed a bill to give 800,000 furloughed federal workers retroactive pay once the government reopens.

The House passed the bill in a rare Saturday session. The vote was 407-0.

The Senate was expected to OK it as well, but the timing is unclear.

The White House backs the legislation.

The federal government been partially shut down since Tuesday, the start of the new budget year.

Both President Barack Obama and Congress are in Washington on Saturday, but there's no apparent progress in ending the shutdown.

After the voting, House members are planning to leave town and not return until Monday evening.

The House has passed several bills to reopen selected parts of the federal government. Democrats are rejecting the piecemeal approach, saying the entire government should be reopened.

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Greek Golden Dawn leader, MPs arrested

GREEK police have arrested the leader and other top officials of the anti-immigrant Golden Dawn party on charges of forming a criminal organisation.

The arrests are an escalation of a government crackdown after a fatal stabbing allegedly committed by a supporter.

It is the first time since 1974 that a party head and sitting members of parliament have been arrested.

Police announced the arrests of 16 Golden Dawn members, including party head Nikos Michaloliakos, spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris and two other MPs.

The arrests included a local Golden Dawn leader in an Athens suburb while the rest were ordinary members.

Two police officials said an operation by the counterterrorism unit was still ongoing on Saturday morning, with a total of about 35 arrest warrants for Golden Dawn members issued.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly.

Despite the arrests, the party's MPs retain their parliamentary seats unless they are convicted of a crime.

Golden Dawn holds 18 of parliament's 300 seats, after winning nearly 7 per cent of the vote in general elections last year.

Michaloliakos had earlier threatened to pull the group's deputies out of parliament, a move that would prompt by-elections in 15 regions around the country.

"We will exhaust any means within our legal constitutional rights to defend our political honour," Michaloliakos said on Thursday.

"If the country enters a cycle of instability, it is those who demonise Golden Dawn who will be responsible, not (us)," he said.

The arrests come 11 days after the killing of anti-fascist activist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by an alleged Golden Dawn member.

Though the party has vehemently denied any role in the killing, the case has appeared to dent its appeal among Greeks and the government has worked to crack down on the party.

Golden Dawn expressed outrage at the arrests in a text message to journalists.

"We call upon everyone to support our moral and just struggle against the corrupt system! Everyone come to our offices!," it said.

A later text message called for supporters to head to police headquarters "with calm and order".

A small group of about 30 people initially gathered, standing on the footpath across the street from the building.

Golden Dawn entered the Greek parliament for the first time in May 2012, capitalising on Greece's deep financial crisis, rising crime and anti-immigrant sentiment.

The party's members and supporters have frequently been suspected of carrying out violent attacks, mainly against immigrants.

Despite its reputation for violence, the party had enjoyed growing popularity.

A government spokesman refused to comment on the details of the operation.

"Democracy can protect itself. Justice will do its job," Simos Kedikoglou told reporters.

In addition to Michaloliakos and Kasidiaris, Golden Dawn deputy, Ilias Panayiotaros, gave himself up at police headquarters, telling police they were looking for him at a wrong address.

Another MP, Yannis Lagos, has also been arrested.

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Tunisia's ruling Islamists to step down

TUNISIA'S governing Islamist party has agreed to step down following negotiations with opposition parties that begin next week.

A spokesman for the main labour union said months of talks with the Islamist-led government had finally reached an agreement on Saturday. Bouali Mbarki of the UGTT union said the deal calls for three weeks of negotiations to appoint an interim, non-partisan government.

Tunisia has endured more than two years of turmoil, worsened by the assassination of a leading opposition figure in July.

As recently as a week ago, the union, which represents 500,000 workers, said talks on a way out of the country's political impasse had failed.

The union, the opposition, lawyers and human rights advocates had said the governing Ennahda Party's inability to ensure security led to the killings of one opposition figure in July and another one in February.

The death of Mohammed Brahmi, who was gunned down in front of his family on July 25, plunged Tunisia into its current crisis, as dozens of opposition MPs quit, freezing efforts to write a new constitution. Street protests and political paralysis have crippled the country.

Tunisia's protesters, inspired by the self-immolation of a fruit seller, overthrew their decades-old authoritarian government in January 2011. Those protests spread through the Arab world, including to Egypt, Syria and neighbouring Libya.

The opposition has accused the Ennahda Party of being overly tolerant of a rising radical Islamist trend that has shown violent tendencies in its efforts to instill greater piety.

Before the 2011 fall of Tunisia's longtime dictator, the country had been known as one of the most secular countries in the Arab world.

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Greenpeace piracy probe worries parents

THE parents of a British journalist held in Russia for suspected piracy after a Greenpeace protest at an Arctic oil rig say they are extremely worried.

A group of 30, including six Britons and Australian Colin Russell, were held last week when armed Russian officials boarded their vessel, the Arctic Sunrise and took it to the port of Murmansk.

A Russian court refused bail to and jailed for two months a number of activists and freelance videographer Keiron Bryan, from Devon.

They have not been charged, though Russian authorities are investigating charges of piracy, which carry a jail term of 10 to 15 years.

Mr Bryan's parents, Andy and Ann Bryan, issued a statement on Saturday saying they were "extremely worried".

"Our son is a very kind, caring individual and environmental issues have always been very close to his heart," the couple from Devon said.

"He would sympathise with the cause but he was simply there doing his job as a freelance videographer.

"None of those on board should be subjected to this prolonged period of detention. They are extremely brave, caring individuals who were peacefully protesting to bring the world's attention to the dangers of drilling in that particular area and of the serious consequences it could have on that already fragile environment.

"We are told that they are being treated fairly and are all well, for which we are extremely grateful.

"However, the fact that they are still there at all is a farce and quite out of proportion to their actions."

From Britain, activists Philip Ball and Sydney resident Alexandra Harris, videographer Mr Bryan and second engineer Iain Roger have been detained for two months pending a piracy investigation. Mr Russell has also been detained for two months.

Two other Britons, Frank Hewetson and Anthony Perrett, were detained for three days pending a hearing on Sunday.

Greenpeace is campaigning against attempts by companies to drill for oil in the waters of the Arctic, warning that a spill would be highly environmentally damaging and extraction of more fossil fuels will add to climate change.

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Morocco crash leaves 16 royal guards dead

SIXTEEN members of Morocco's royal guards have died in a road accident as they were headed north on a bus to prepare for a visit by King Mohammed VI, medics say.

The pre-dawn accident took place near Al-Hoceima in northern Morocco and wounded 42 other guards, a hospital source said.

They were on board a bus which plunged into a ravine, the source and a local official said, without giving a cause for the accident.

The king sent a messages of condolences to the families of the victims and decided to take on all the costs for the burials as well as the medical fees of those injured in the accident.

Mohammed VI, Morocco's ruler since 1999, was on Saturday also to chair a traditional annual ceremony in Rabat marking the anniversary of his accession to the throne.

Known as "Celebration of loyalty and allegiance", the ceremony is an elaborate event during which senior government officials and representatives from across the North African country pay allegiance to the king.

But opposition activists are opposed to the event and have called for its cancellation in statements posted on Facebook.

Opposition activists have said the annual event perpetuates a "backwardness" and "servitude" in Morocco that is out of touch with the times.

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Israel drone killed Sinai militants: group

AN Egyptian militant group says a strike that killed four of its members in the Sinai peninsula was Israeli.

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis said four of its members belonging to Sinai Bedouin tribes had been killed by Israeli drones on Friday.

Egypt's military denied on Friday that there had been any Israeli strikes inside Egyptian territory.

The group accused the Egyptian army of co-ordinating the attack with Israel, and threatened more strikes against the Jewish state.

"How can the Egyptian army allow the Zionist unmanned planes to cross into Egyptian territory," the statement said.

A funeral was held for the militants on Saturday, with the bodies of the four driven through several border towns in north Sinai.

Dozens of men on pick-up trucks flying the jihadist black flag paraded through the towns, in an act of defiance to the army, witnesses said.

Militants based mainly in north Sinai near Israel's border have escalated attacks on security forces and other targets since July 3, when the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and installed a new government in Cairo.

But the army has been reluctant to confront the militants inside towns in order not to provoke the tight-knit tribes, military sources say.

There have been conflicting reports about the source of Friday's attack.

Officials said the strike came from the Egyptian military, as part of their campaign to curtail a surge in violence and rein in militant activity in the lawless Sinai.

The state owned al-Ahram newspaper and the official news agency MENA reported on Saturday that Egyptian military aircraft conducted the strike, quoting anonymous security officials.

Witnesses said Egyptian military helicopters hovered above the site after the blasts.

On Friday, the Egyptian military said two explosions were heard in the Sinai Peninsula, close to the border with Israel, and that it would investigate their cause.

"There is no truth whatsoever to any Israeli strikes inside Egyptian territory and the claim that there is Egyptian and Israeli co-ordination on the matter is utterly baseless," military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Aly said in a statement on Friday.

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Seven dead as bombers target Afghan cops

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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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