Don't return to sectarian strife: Iraq PM

IRAQI Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has called for people to stand together against sectarian strife, warning of a return to the days of bloody conflict when heads were left in the streets.

Maliki called in a speech in Baghdad for Iraqis to "stand together in one rank in facing this strife".

And the Shi'ite premier warned of a return to the worst days of the sectarian conflict that swept Iraq from 2006 to 2008.

"Have you forgotten the day we were collecting bodies from the streets? Have you forgotten the day we were collecting severed heads from the streets?" he asked.

Maliki's remarks came two days after security forces arrested at least nine of Sunni Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi's guards on terror charges, threatening a new crisis with the minister's secular, Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc.

After his guards were arrested, Essawi demanded Maliki's resignation, and also called for no-confidence proceedings that failed to remove the premier earlier this year to be reopened.

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Egypt VP Mekki resigns: state TV

EGYPTIAN Vice President Mahmud Mekki announced his resignation on Saturday, state television reported, on the day of a referendum on a new constitution that leaves unclear whether his position would be maintained.

Mr Mekki, 58, was a respected judge before President Mohamed Morsi named him to the post in August.

He led judicial opposition to ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, but eschewed calls to become a presidential candidate himself, saying he wished to stay politically independent.

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Bomber kills 9 at Pakistan political rally

A SUICIDE bomber in Pakistan has killed nine people including a provincial government official at a political rally, officials say.

The rally in Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was held by the Awami National Party, whose members have been repeatedly targeted by the Pakistani Taliban.

Among the dead was Bashir Bilour, the second most senior member of the provincial cabinet, said Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the politician's brother and federal railways minister.

More than 20 others were wounded by the blast, said local police officer Sabir Khan.

Bilour was leaving the rally after delivering the keynote speech when the attack occurred, said Nazir Khan, a local Awami National Party leader.

"There was smoke and dust all around, and dead and wounded people were lying on the ground," he said.

The suicide bomber was on foot, said another police officer, Imtiaz Khan.

Mohammed Afridi, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call with The Associated Press.

He said the militant group has formed a special wing to attack members of the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Quami Movement, another political party that has opposed the Taliban.

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister and a member of the Awami National Party, said both he and Bilour had repeatedly received threats from militants.

He condemned the attack and said the government needed to intensify its battle against the Pakistani Taliban.

"Terrorism has engulfed our whole society," said Hussain.

"They are targeting our bases, our mosques, our bazaars, public meetings and our security checkpoints."

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Bahrain protesters demand departure of PM

THOUSANDS of Shi'ite protesters in Bahrain have demanded a transition government and the removal of Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has been premier since 1974, witnesses say.

They said the demonstrators marched in the village of Diya near the capital Manama, chanting "Resign, Khalifa!" and waving Bahraini flags.

The Shi'ite opposition in the tiny Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom is led by al-Wefaq, which wants a government of technocrats to rule in a transition leading to a constitutional monarchy.

Since February last year, Bahrain has been shaken by opposition protests that the authorities accuse of being exploited by Shi'ite Iran across the Gulf.

At least 80 people have died since the start of the unrest in February 2011, according to the International Federation of Human Rights.

The opposition insists that the premier stand down and that the government be headed by the leader of the elected majority in parliament

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Taliban seek new Afghanistan constitution

AFGHANISTAN'S Taliban has called for a new constitution as a pre-condition for it joining the country's fledgling peace process, according to a declaration issued by representatives at a landmark meeting in France.

Representatives from the country's warring factions met on Thursday for two days of talks that diplomats hope will bolster relations in the war-torn country.

It is the first time since a US-led bombing campaign drove the Taliban from power in 2001 that senior representatives have sat down with officials from the government and other opposition groups to discuss the country's future, in a meeting brokered by a French think tank.

"Afghanistan's present constitution has no value for us because it was made under the shadows of B52 bombers of the invaders," said the declaration, which was handed to participants during the meeting and later released to the media.

"Islamic Emirate, for the welfare of their courageous nation, need a constitution that is based on the principles of the holy religion of Islam, national interest, historical achievements, and social justice," it read.

The meeting in France was organised by the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), and was held behind closed doors at an undisclosed location near Paris.

The talks come against a background of accelerating efforts to draw the Taliban and other opponents of President Hamid Karzai into negotiations on how Afghanistan will be run after foreign troops withdraw at the end of 2014.

Karzai's government has drawn up a roadmap for peace which involves persuading the Taliban and other insurgent groups to agree to a ceasefire as a prelude to becoming peaceful players in the country's nascent democracy.

As a first step in that direction, Karzai's administration has been attempting to secure the release of top Taliban prisoners held by neighbouring Pakistan.

Despite the landmark meeting, the Taliban's declaration continued to display a lack of trust in the government.

"The invaders and their friends don't have a clear roadmap for peace," it stated.

"Sometimes they say we want to talk to the Islamic Emirate, but sometimes they say we will talk with Pakistan. This kind of vague stance will never get to peace," it said.

To date the Taliban has refused to negotiate with the government, which it regards as a puppet of the United States.

Discussions with US officials were suspended in March.

In France the Taliban was represented by their senior figures Shahabuddin Dilawar and Naeem Wardak, a move seen as a sign that the Islamist group is contemplating going beyond exploratory discussions.

The Taliban, who ruled in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, were ousted from power by a US-led invasion and have since waged an 11-year insurgency to topple the US-supported government of Karzai.

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Kenya deputy PM eyes presidential bid

KENYAN Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, charged by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity over deadly 2007-08 election violence, says he will run for president in the March vote.

"I have been mandated by (the Jubilee coalition) to be the flag bearer in the March 4 election, and I will never let you down," he said.

The son of Jomo Kenyatta, who is considered the founding father of Kenyan independence, Uhuru Kenyatta has been charged by the ICC over his alleged role in the unrest unleashed after the December 2007 elections that killed at least 1100 people.

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Punish those who shot UN chopper: Russia

RUSSIA has urged South Sudan to punish those responsible for shooting down a UN peacekeeping helicopter and killing all four Russian crew members aboard, in an attack condemned by the international community.

"We call on the government of South Sudan to carry out the necessary investigation, punish the guilty and take every measure to guarantee that this never happens again," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website after Friday's incident.

A South Sudan military spokesman said troops fired anti-aircraft guns at the Russian Mi-8 believing it was a rebel helicopter carrying weapons to anti-government forces in the world's newest country.

The United Nations said the aircraft was hit while on a "reconnaissance flight" over the Likuangole district of the eastern Jonglei state.

"The tragic event in this African country raises with new urgency the question of the security of UN peacekeeping missions," the Russian ministry said, attributing the helicopter downing to "blunders".

"The governments of countries that accept missions and carry the main responsibility for the security of UN peacekeepers must approach this problem with all seriousness and recognise all the possible consequences of blunders," it said.

It cited South Sudan officials as saying the helicopter was downed "despite the fact that the UN mission informed the local command about the planned flight as usual".

"The mission was guaranteed complete safety," the ministry said.

Russian television named the men who died as commander Sergei Ilyin, second pilot Alfir Abrarov, flight engineer Sergei Yegorov and cabin attendant and radio operator Nikolai Shpanov.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon, as well as the UN Security Council, had vehemently condemned the attack.

He said on Friday it was a "clearly marked" UN aircraft and demanded that those responsible be brought to account.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also said in a statement on Saturday that she "deplores" the attack and "calls on the government of South Sudan to give full cooperation in the investigation of this very serious incident".

Jongeli state has been stricken by ethnic strife since South Sudan became independent from Khartoum in July last year, becoming a base for rebellion against the new government.

The Mi-8 helicopter is a hardy workhorse model that was developed in the 1960s and is still being made in a modified version today.

It can carry up to 28 passengers or be used to transport cargo.

The downed aircraft belonged to the Nizhnevartovsk-Avia air company based in the Western Siberian town of Nizhnevartovsk.

The company was working on a contract with the United Nations, acting director Sergei Bakunin said in televised comments.

"They are fine pilots. The commander had more flight experience than the others: around 7000 hours. He went through Afghanistan, so he had great experience," he said.

The company had been working in South Sudan since March this year when Russian troops that had been servicing flights since 2006 left the region, Russian television reported.

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Bodies removed from US massacre school

THE bodies of 20 young children and six adults massacred by a lone gunman in a quiet US town were finally removed from the blood-soaked school, police said.

The formal identification of the victims in one of America's worst mass shootings marked a new chapter for horrified residents of Newtown, Connecticut, where Friday morning a 20-year-old man walked in with at least two powerful pistols and shot everyone he could find in two rooms of the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"By early this morning, they were able to positively identify all of the victims and make formal identification to all of the families of the victims," said Connecticut State Police spokesman Lieutenant Paul Vance.

The removal of bodies, which were initially left for investigators, "has been accomplished," he said on CBS television. "That was done overnight."

The gunman shot dead 18 children inside the school and two more died of their wounds shortly afterwards. Six adults, including the school principal, perished before the gunman died - apparently in a suicide.

Authorities offered little clue as to the motive for the shootings in Newtown, a wooded and picturesque small town northeast of New York City.

Hours after the shooting, hundreds of people gathered for a vigil, the crowd filling the church to capacity and spilling outside its doors.

"This is a kind of community, when things like that happen, they really pull together," the priest, Robert Weiss, said during the Mass.

A letter from Pope Benedict XVI was also read during the service.

Pope Benedict XVI sent his condolences to the community, in a letter read aloud at a vigil in Newtown Friday evening.

The pope "has asked me to convey his heartfelt grief and the assurance of his closeness in prayer to the victims and their families, and to all affected by the shocking event," Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said in the letter.

"In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy he asks God our Father to console all those who mourn and to sustain the entire community," the letter said.

David Connors, whose triplets were at the school during the shooting but were unharmed, said he was still horrified.

"It's hard. I've never imagined a thing like that could happen here."

"Our faith is tested," state Governor Dan Malloy told the congregants.

"Not just necessarily our faith in God, but our faith in community, and who we are, and what we collectively are."

Earlier the governor had said "evil visited this community today."

US President Barack Obama, wiping away tears and struggling to maintain his composure, said he was aghast over the tragedy.

State police spokesman Vance said just one injured person survived, indicating that the gunman was unusually accurate or methodical in his fire.

The majority of killings, which began at around 9:30am local time, "took place in one section of the school, in two rooms," Vance added. The children were aged between five and 10, officials said.

The killer was identified as Adam Lanza, 20. Initially, police told media they thought the murderer was his brother, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, whose identity card had been found on the shooter's dead body.

The surviving brother was in custody and being questioned, according to US television reports.

Many news outlets said another victim found in a home in Newtown - the 28th body in the day's bloodshed - was the shooter's mother, who was a teacher at Sandy Hook and whom he had killed before driving to the school.

Mr Obama went on national television to express his "overwhelming grief." He ordered flags to be lowered to half mast.

And there were similar statements of grief and shock around the world.

The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, spoke of his "deep shock and horror," the Queen sent a message to Mr Obama in which she said she was "deeply shocked and saddened," and French President Francois Hollande expressed his condolences to Mr Obama, saying the news "horrified me."

Of all US campus shootings, the toll was second only to the 32 murders in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech university.

The latest number far exceeded the 15 killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which triggered a fierce but inconclusive debate about the United States' relaxed gun control laws.

However, the White House has scotched any suggestion that the politically explosive subject would be quickly reopened.

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Police to launch interactive crime map

Police computer boffins are developing software described as like a "Google Maps of crime" that will for the first time show offences street by street. Source: The Courier-Mail

QUEENSLANDERS will get a new perspective on crime in their neighbourhoods thanks to a ground-breaking police mapping project.

Police computer boffins are developing software described as like a "Google Maps of crime" that will for the first time show offences street by street.

But there are no plans to include crime-rate information that would allow comparisons of neighbourhoods.

From next year anyone will be able to enter a street address, postcode or police division into a special search engine and compare the number of reported offences. The system, which will be free to access, is likely to show crimes ranging from assault and burglary to car theft using user-friendly icons to represent each type of offence.

Users will be able to customise their own maps showing neighbourhood crime hot spots and to track offending over time, with up to 15 years' worth of information being made available.

Sensitive crimes such as sex offences and breaches of domestic violence orders are likely to be aggregated with other crime types, such as assault, so they can't be associated with a particular location.

The Queensland Police Service is using data that records the location of each offence, but is working on ways to show crimes by street only so as to avoid breaching people's privacy. QPS said it would consider including crime rates at a future date.

The data will be updated regularly, but there is likely to be a time lag while police verify the figures.

The project is the product of about 18 months' work, triggered by pressure from Queensland's Information Commissioner and the media.

A spokesman for Emergency Services Minister Jack Dempsey said the program would help homebuyers and businesspeople make informed decisions about different locations.

"We want to give everyone an opportunity to look at the crime stats," he said.

"There's no reason to keep it secret or to do it just once a year."

The aim was to have the project go live by February but the State's Privacy Commissioner would be consulted first, the spokesman said.

It will be the first time police have published "divisional" level crime stats, breaking the figures down by suburb.

Police have kept more detailed divisional numbers to themselves, with the QPS last year saying it could not release the divisional statistics because they had not been "verified" by their statistics unit.

A QPS spokeswoman said The Sunday Mail's and The Courier-Mail's use of Right To Information laws to obtain the neighbourhood statistics two years ago had been the initial trigger for the project.

It also comes as the Newman Government makes commitments to greater transparency.

Its moves so far include putting a selection of statistics, including 15-years' worth of Statewide crime numbers and rates, on a pilot website, http://data.qld.gov.au.

In NSW residents can access data by suburb that is collected by an independent body.

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Allison face-to-face with Gerard's mistress

FLASHPOINT: The Indooroopilly gym where Allison Baden-Clay came face-to-face with her husband's lover Toni McHugh, and Ms McHugh's witness statement detailing the meeting. Source: The Sunday Mail (Qld)

FACE to face in a suburban gym, Allison Baden-Clay and her husband's mistress Toni McHugh stared mutely at each other.

The pair had rarely crossed paths before the chance encounter, which came just weeks after Mrs Baden-Clay found out about her husband's affair. Court documents, lodged as part of accused killer Gerard Baden-Clay's failed bail application on Friday, reveal how both women were lost for words.

"Nothing was said, we just looked at one another," Ms McHugh says in one of four signed police statements.

After the encounter, both women vented their anger on Baden-Clay in text messages.

"I may have used the term that Allison was a lady of leisure in the text message," Ms McHugh told police.

"Gerard never showed me or told me what she had said, just that she had sent him an abusive text message."

Three alleged affairs, including a relationship with a woman named for the first time as Jackie Crane, and their impact on his troubled marriage are also detailed.

Neighbour: Screams in night heard by MP Flegg

Allison's diary: Lonely mum, broken heart

Evidence: Police focus on husband's "blunt razor" cuts

Bail fail: Gerard Baden-Clay to spend Christmas behind bars

A packed court room has heard accused wife killer Gerard Baden-Clay's bid to be home for Christmas

As it happened: Baden-Clay's second bail application

Baden-Clay maintains his innocence on charges of murdering his wife.

Defence barrister Peter Davis SC claimed at the bail hearing the Crown case was weak and Mrs Baden-Clay may have taken her own life.

Mr Davis told the court a witness saw a woman walking in the Brookfield area at around 5.30am on the day she disappeared and an autopsy found high levels of her anti-depressant medication that could indicate suicide.

In her statements to police, Ms McHugh details how Baden-Clay continued to contact her after he reported his wife missing from their Brookfield home on April 20.

Baden-Clay had allegedly committed to leaving his wife for Ms McHugh, but their complicated relationship unravelled after the disappearance. In one frosty phone call with Baden-Clay on May 27, Ms McHugh confronted him about another affair.

"The conversation did not go well. When I answered the phone, Gerard said, 'It's me'. I think I went straight into, 'I know what you've been doing. How could you do that to me?'

"Gerard admitted that he had been in a relationship with Jackie Crane and another woman. I basically asked him why I should give him any time to explain. Gerard agreed that he shouldn't have any time to explain.

"Gerard then told me that he loved me. He again said that he did not know what went wrong there and that he believed the police would find the killer," she said.

He told her he would phone her at work the next day, but didn't make the call.

Ms McHugh, a 41-year-old mother of two, admitted to the affair in her first statement to police the day after Baden-Clay reported his wife missing.

She told police how she was in a long-term relationship when she first met Baden-Clay through the sale of her home around 2006. As Century 21 Westside principal, Baden-Clay was the agent selling her home and hired her as a property consultant in April 2007.

"When I first started working with Gerard, there was definitely chemistry for me. I admired him. I was attracted to him," she told police.

After the affair allegedly started in August 2008, Ms McHugh left her partner and would refer to Baden-Clay as "GM" for gorgeous man. He referred to her as "GG" for gorgeous girl.

They would secretly meet on a quiet dirt road at Pullenvale, in Baden-Clay's Century 21 office at Kenmore and at her home in the inner western suburbs.

On two occasions she went to Baden-Clay's Brookfield home while Allison and the children were away.

Neighbour: Screams in night heard by MP Flegg

Allison's diary: Lonely mum, broken heart

Evidence: Police focus on husband's "blunt razor" cuts

Bail fail: Gerard Baden-Clay to spend Christmas behind bars

As it happened: Baden-Clay's second bail application

Ms McHugh said in "a lot of ways Gerard did defend Allison", who he said had severe bouts of depression, but also did not express admiration or a depth of feeling towards his wife. He also raised fears his wife would take her life if he left her.

"Gerard told me that he did not love Allison and they had not slept together for many years. Gerard told me that he slept most nights on the couch in the living room," Ms McHugh told police.

The affair continued for more than three years until ending abruptly on October 14 last year after "someone at the school canteen" was told of the affair and informed Mrs Baden-Clay. They broke off the relationship but were allegedly seeing each other again within months, until Allison's disappearance.

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