A 55-YEAR-OLD man has been charged with making a bomb hoax to a Burleigh Heads shopping centre.
The Burleigh Heads man was charged following investigations into a telephone call received at a West Burleigh Road shopping centre on Thursday morning, police said.
He is expected to appear in the Southport Magistrates Court on January 30.
US readers are increasingly opting for digital books instead of ink-and-paper editions, according to a Pew Research Centre study.
The share of US adults reading electronic books rose to 23 per cent in November from 16 per cent the same time last year, according to the Pew study.
Meanwhile, ranks of people age 16 or older turning to pages of printed books fell to 67 per cent from 72 per cent, the findings indicated.
Overall, 75 per cent of US adults read books in one form or another in a slight slip from the 78 per cent figure seen late in 2011, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The growing popularity of e-books was in step with the hot trend in tablet computers, whether they are dedicated reading devices such as Kindles or Nooks or multi-purpose Internet portals such as Apple iPads or Google Nexus devices.
The portion of US adults with some kind of tablet jumped to 33 per cent late this year, as compared with 18 per cent as 2011 came to an end, according to the Pew study.
Understandably, the number of people borrowing e-books from US libraries also rose, findings indicated.
People in higher education and income brackets were more likely to be e-book readers, as were those between the ages of 30 and 49, according to Pew.
The findings were based on a survey taken between October 15 and November 10.
A NUMBER of sheds and fences have been destroyed in a bushfire east of Perth.
The fire in Chidlow was reported shortly before 8pm (WST) on Thursday and took several hours to bring under control.
Fire and Rescue Service and Bush Fire Service firefighters remained on the scene overnight strengthening containment lines.
Firefighters say they are being helped by an easing of the wind.
The cause of the fire is unknown.
FONTELLA Bass, a St. Louis-born soul singer who hit the top of the R&B charts with "Rescue Me" in 1965, has died
The singer's daughter, Neuka Mitchell, says Bass died at a St. Louis hospice Wednesday night of complications from a heart attack suffered three weeks ago. She was 72. Bass had also suffered several strokes since 2005.
Bass was born into a family with deep musical roots. Her mother was gospel singer Martha Bass, one of the Clara Ward Singers. Her younger brother, David Peaston, had a string of R&B hits in the 1980s and 1990s. Peaston died in February at age 54.
Her surviving family includes four children. Her husband, jazz trumpeter Lester Bowie, died in 1999.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
APPLE CEO Tim Cook got a relatively modest $US4.2 million ($4 million) in pay for the latest fiscal year, after the company's board set him up with stock now worth $US510 million for taking the reins in 2011.
Mr Cook's pay for fiscal 2012, which ended in September, consisted of $US1.4 million in salary, a bonus of $US2.8 million, and $US17,000 in company contributions to his 401(k) account and life insurance premiums, according to a filing.
Apple's board saw no need to grant Mr Cook additional shares in 2012 after the sign-on grant of 1 million shares in 2011. Half of those shares vest in 2016 and the other half in 2021.
Mr Cook did vest into shares worth $US140 million in 2012. Those shares were granted earlier, when he was chief operating officer.
EGYPT'S public prosecutor has ordered a probe into the top three leaders of the opposition on suspicion of trying to incite followers to overthrow President Mohamed Morsi, a legal source says.
The prosecutor, Taalat Ibrahim Abdallah, who was appointed by Morsi late last month, signed the order against the leaders of the opposition National Salvation Front, which led protests against Morsi's drive to have a new constitution adopted.
The probe targets Mohammed ElBaradei, a Nobel peace prize laureate, Amr Moussa, former chief of the Arab League, and Hamdeen Sabbahi, the leader of the nationalist left wing. Moussa and Sabbahi were presidential candidates in June elections that Morsi won.
The National Salvation Front alleged frauds and irregularities in the December 15 and 22 split referendum on the new charter, which Morsi signed into law this week.
It accuses Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood of wanting to use the constitution to introduce creeping strict Islamic sharia law.
Abdallah called on Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki to name an investigating magistrate for the probe, which would examine suspicions of "inciting for the overthrow of the regime".
Morsi on Wednesday hailed the adoption of the new constitution with 64 per cent of the votes in the referendum, though turnout was a low 33 per cent.
Within two months, Egypt has to hold legislative elections to choose a parliament to succeed the one dissolved by the constitutional court in June. The opposition parties in the National Salvation Front coalition are considering competing in the elections on the same ticket.
SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma got himself into a spot of bother when he suggested that owning a dog was not African and belonged to white culture.
Local media reported that Zuma had remarked that buying a dog, taking it for walks and paying for veterinary care belonged to "white" culture.
Not able to let sleeping dogs lie, Zuma went on to say that pet ownership was part of a worrying trend of black Africans trying to be white.
That prompted howls of protest from South African pet owners of all hues and mottles.
Criticism of Zuma littered social networking sites like Twitter, where one user tweeted: "Zuma says owning dogs is un-African. Unlike those old African traditions of owning German cars, Italian suits, and Irish whiskey."
The presidency later tried to fend off some of the criticism, insisting Zuma had been trying to "decolonise the African mind".
"The message merely emphasised the need not to elevate our love for our animals above our love for other human beings," said spokesman Mac Maharaj.
"He made the well-known example of people who sit with their dogs in front in a van or truck with a worker at the back in pouring rain or extremely cold weather.
"Others do not hesitate to rush their dogs to veterinary surgeons for medical care when they are sick while they ignore workers or relatives who are also sick in the same households."
ECUADOR'S central bank president has resigned over revelations he used a bogus university degree to get into a graduate school and study business.
Pedro Delgado acknowledged he never completed his economics studies at Ecuador's Catholic University and fabricated a diploma later to gain admission to a business school called INCAE, in Costa Rica.
"I made a mistake, a very serious mistake, 22 years ago," Mr Delgado said on television Wednesday night.
"I made the wrong decision and, in order to achieve my academic goal, I made a mistake that is now costing me dearly."
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, who is Mr Delgado's cousin, said Mr Delgado's dishonesty had dealt a serious blow to his government.
It was INCAE that first started investigating Mr Delgado and passed on its findings to the Quito government, which confirmed the central banker had no undergraduate degree and made as if he did.
Mr Delgado had run the central bank since November 2011.
He was also in charge of monitoring companies seized by the state over unpaid debt, and has been accused by opposition groups of a number of improprieties including attempts to coordinate financial activities with Iran.
"Nothing was found because all these accusations were fabricated to damage the image of the one who leads the revolution," Mr Delgado said of these other charges and alluding to Mr Correa.
THE head of the Roman Catholic church in the Holy Land expressed "dismay" at a wave of attacks on local Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious sites over the past year.
In his Christmas message, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Fuad Twal, noted "an increase in a certain religious radicalism," with church data showing 21 acts of vandalism, arson and desecration of mosques, churches, synagogues and cemeteries since December 21, 2011.
"I reiterate my dismay at the desecration of churches, convents, synagogues and cemeteries that offends everyone," Patriarch Twal said.
"We must take out the evil at its root by educating our youth in all schools."
The most recent attack was discovered on December 12, after vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on Jerusalem's Monastery of the Cross and at an Armenian cemetery overnight, in an apparent hate crime by Jewish extremists.
There have also been acts of arson and graffiti, including the painting of Nazi swastikas at synagogues, allegedly perpetrated by Muslims.
Repeated incidents of arson and anti-Islamic graffiti against mosques have been linked to the "price tag" campaign of Israeli extremists opposed to state moves to dismantle unauthorised settler outposts.
Of late they have become increasingly unrelated to any specific government measures.
The patriarch also made mention of the conflict in Syria, which activists say has killed more than 43,000 people in 21 months.
"The joy of Christmas is overshadowed by the staggering violence in Syria," he said. "We are full of compassion for the victims."
FIFTY-FIVE Somalis and Ethiopians have drowned or are missing after their boat capsized off Somalia in the worst such disaster in the area in almost two years, the United Nations says.
The UN refugee agency said on Thursday the incident represents "the biggest loss of life" in the Gulf of Aden since February 2011, when 57 Somali refugees and migrants from the Horn of Africa drowned while attempting to reach Yemen.
"Twenty-three bodies have been recovered. The 32 remaining passengers are presumed to have drowned," UNHCR said.
At least five people survived Tuesday's accident.
The boat was overcrowded and capsized just 15 minutes after leaving the port of Bosasso in Somalia's northern semi-autonomous state of Puntland on Tuesday.
Some 100,000 people have crossed the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden this year, despite warnings about the risks such trips involve, the agency said.
In addition to using unseaworthy and overcrowded boats, those fleeing the Horn of Africa often fall prey to unscrupulous smugglers, in whose hands they can face exploitation, extortion and even death, the agency warned.
It said 95 people have drowned or gone missing in the waters between Somalia and Yemen this year.
GLOBAL oil prices have dipped as Democrats and Republicans remain locked in a stalemate over a deal to resolve the US fiscal cliff, analysts say.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February slid 25 cents to $US89.73 a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for February reversed 28 cents to $US110.08 a barrel in London afternoon deals on Thursday.
"Crude oil prices slid lower on Thursday, in a healthy correction, after a recent rally that dominated the oil market in the last few days," said analyst Myrto Sokou at brokerage Sucden Financial Research.
"The general momentum is slightly bearish today, with European equity markets reporting renewed losses as 'fiscal cliff' sentiment worsened somewhat with Obama threatening to veto Boehner's 'Plan B', heightening chances that it would not pass through the Democrat-controlled Senate."
With less than two weeks to go before the fiscal cliff of huge tax hikes and deep spending cuts is due to take effect, US lawmakers have still not reached a compromise budget deal to cut the nation's deficit with less painful measures.
Traders remain fearful that the fiscal cliff - due to be implemented on January 1 - could plunge the world's biggest economy back into recession and ravage global oil demand.
President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he and the Republicans had narrowed differences to "a few hundred billion dollars". But a deal remains elusive.
Republicans are loath to raise taxes, while Democrats do not want to cut spending on programs such as Medicare.
House Speaker John Boehner, the Republican negotiating with the president, has said he is willing to extend tax breaks for everyone earning less than $US1 million ($A957,400) per year. Obama has said, however, he is willing to go no higher than $US400,000.
Boehner announced on Wednesday that he will move to pass his measure, which he describes as his "Plan B", through the House on Thursday but Obama warned he would veto the legislation.
Meanwhile traders shrugged off official data on Thursday showing that the US economy grew 3.1 per cent in the third quarter, faster than previously estimated.
Gross domestic product growth in the July-September period was revised upward from prior estimates of 2.7 per cent and 2.0 per cent.
The higher figure reflects upward revisions to consumer spending, exports and government outlays, and downward revision to imports.
"The US GDP data were fairly robust but failed to provide some upside momentum to the oil market as the main focus has been switched to the US fiscal cliff talks," added Sokou.
"Crude oil prices continue to post renewed losses, as risk appetite is limited."
BRAZIL'S Central Bank has cut its GDP growth forecast for 2012 from 1.6 per cent to one per cent, confirming a marked slowdown in Latin America's biggest economy.
In September, the bank had already revised its forecast downward from 2.5 per cent to 1.6 per cent.
On Thursday, the bank also revised its inflation estimate for 2012 to 5.7 per cent, up from 5.2 per cent. The new projection is well above the official target of 4.5 per cent.
Market analysts have been predicting 1.5 per cent GDP growth for Brazil this year, a projection similar to one by the International Monetary Fund in October.
The IMF also expects Brazil to fare worse than its partners in the BRICS bloc of emerging powers, predicting 7.8 per cent growth for China, 4.9 per cent for India, 3.7 per cent for Russia and 2.6 per cent for South Africa.
Brazil's economy grew just 0.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2012 compared with the previous three months, signalling a weaker than anticipated recovery, the Brazilian statistics office said late last month.
The economy lost steam last year due to the global slowdown, with GDP growth at 2.7 per cent, down from a sizzling 7.5 per cent in 2010.
THE Broadway musical Chicago is about to swagger into the history books again.
The overnight performance of the edgy musical will be its 6681, meaning it becomes the third longest-running show in Broadway history. It snatches that title from Les Miserables.
The only shows that have run longer are Cats, with almost 7500 shows, and The Phantom of the Opera, which is still going after more than 10,300 performances.
It was only last year that Chicago took over third place on the list, beating out A Chorus Line.
Set in the 1920s, Chicago is a scathing satire of how show business and the media make celebrities out of criminals. It has skimpy outfits, a rotating cast of celebrities and killer songs such as All That Jazz.
THE late Pope Paul VI, who led an era of church reforms and issued a ban on contraception, is progressing along the path to possible sainthood.
Pope Benedict XVI has approved a decree recognising the "heroic virtues" of the Italian, who served as pontiff from 1963-1978.
To be beatified, the last formal step before sainthood, a miracle achieved through Paul VI's intercession must be recognised by the Vatican.
Paul gained prominence at the Vatican as a close aide to wartime pontiff Pius XII and later led the Milan archdiocese.
Elected pontiff in 1963, Paul continued the groundbreaking liberalising reforms started by predecessor Pope John XXIII, travelled worldwide and promoted better relations among Christians.
His 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which forbids Catholics to use contraception, was highly controversial.
US stocks have edged higher as investors digest a batch of mostly positive economic data on jobs, retail sales and inflation.
In the first five minutes of Thursday trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.21 points (0.08 per cent) to 13,256.66.
The broad-market S&P 500 advanced 0.65 point (0.05 per cent) to 1,429.13, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.66 (0.09 per cent) to 3,016.48.
The "inability to rally after the Fed announcement yesterday has taken some steam out of the market, which has been in rally mode since mid-November," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.
"It is understandable given the Grinch-like message from the Fed that participants shouldn't expect a meaningful pickup in economic activity soon whether we go over the fiscal cliff or not," he said.
On Wednesday, after a surge on the Fed's announcement of more bond purchases to support the sluggish economy, the Dow fell 0.02 per cent, breaking a five-day winning streak.
The S&P 500 edged up 0.04 per cent and the tech-rich Nasdaq dropped 0.28 per cent.
SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad's regime is approaching collapse and he should take steps to begin talks on a political transition, NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen says.
"I think the regime in Damascus is approaching the regime of collapse ... it is only a question of time," Rasmussen said on Thursday, adding Assad should "initiate a process that leads to the accommodation of the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people".
"I urge the regime to stop violence, to realise what the actual situation is," he said, as Moscow signalled for the first time that its long-time ally in Damascus could be losing a bloody conflict which has so far cost more than 42,000 lives.
His comments came amid a growing perception the tide has turned, with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov saying the rebels had made important gains after getting increased external support.
"As for preparing for victory by the opposition, this, of course, cannot be excluded," the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Bogdanov as saying.
"You need to look the facts in the eyes - the government regime is losing more and more control over a large part of the country's territory."
Asked if the reported use of Scud missiles was a sign of Assad's desperation, Rasmussen said he could not judge the motive but "the use of such indiscriminate weapons shows utter disregard for the lives of the Syrian people.
"It is reckless and I strongly condemn it," Rasmussen added.
The Scud, fired into Israel and Saudi Arabia by Iraq's Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War, can deliver a payload of 3500 kilos over a range of 200 kilometres or more, defence analysts say.
Karim Bitar, research director at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), said the regime's use of Scuds was an indication it was bracing for a decisive battle.
"The battle for Damascus is about to begin and this battle could change the rules of the game," he said.
A SUICIDE car bomber has attacked a NATO airbase in southern Afghanistan just hours after the US Defence Secretary left, killing two civilians, wounding 15 and injuring four foreign soldiers.
There was no indication that the attack was connected with defence chief Leon Panetta's visit, a US spokesman said on Thursday.
"I can confirm that insurgents detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (IED) in the vicinity of Kandahar airfield.
"Currently ISAF officials are on the scene collecting facts and assessing the situation and as information becomes available we will release it as appropriate," the spokesman said.
"I have no information at this time that this incident was associated with the visit of the secretary of defence. The attack occurred after the secretary returned to Kabul."
Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message to AFP, but did not link it to Panetta's visit.
Panetta was due to hold a press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai later in the day.
"The suicide bomber detonated his car as an ISAF convoy was entering the Kandahar airfield," Kandahar provincial police chief General Abdul Razeq told AFP.
"As a result of this suicide attack two civilians have been killed, and 15 civilians and four ISAF soldiers have been injured."
A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force confirmed the attack, without giving details of any ISAF casualties. It is ISAF policy not to disclose the number of its personnel wounded in any attack.
KING tides will begin their twice-a-year run up the NSW coast early on Friday morning - and residents are being asked to get out their cameras.
The tides will begin in Eden about 8.30am (AEDT), reach Sydney at 9.33am and hit Newcastle by 9.39am.
Environmental organisation Green Cross hopes to use the event to draw attention to rising sea levels.
Green Cross CEO Mara Bun is asking coastal residents to photograph their local king tides and upload them to help create a digital picture of future sea levels.
"Through gathering and sharing visual data we raise awareness around Australia and can adapt for the future," she said.
The project will become a permanent record of environmental change, with 40 local councils across NSW, Queensland and Tasmania offering funding and digital support.
In 2009, the business districts of Ballina, Woy Woy, Bateman's Bay, and Carrington were photographed during a king tide as they were inundated with between 30 and 50cm of seawater.
US producer prices have fallen for the second straight month in November, the Commerce Department reports, losing 0.8 per cent in a sign inflation pressures remain muted in the economy.
The main pull downward was a 4.6 per cent drop in energy prices; food prices rose 1.3 per cent.
Stripped of those two volatile components, the rate was an increase of just 0.1 per cent, the department said on Thursday.
Year-on-year, the producer price index for finished goods was up just 1.5 per cent, after three months at or above two per cent.
Inflation has become less of a concern for policymakers despite four years of extremely easy-money policies of the central bank.
On Wednesday the Federal Reserve underscored that point by tying its interest rates more closely to the jobless rate, saying that as long as medium-term inflation expectations remained moderate - below 2.5 per cent - it would not begin raising its benchmark interest rate until unemployment fell below 6.5 per cent.
The jobless rate was 7.7 per cent in November.
AT least 24 civilians, including a large number of children, have been killed in two separate car bombings southwest of Damascus, state media reports.
Eight people, mostly women and children, were killed by a car bomb in the poor Sunni town of Jdaidet Artuz, state television reported on Thursday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four civilians were killed in the blast.
Less than eight kilometres away, a similar blast rocked the town of Qatana earlier in the day, leaving 16 people dead, seven of them children, state news agency SANA reported.
"This morning, terrorists targeted the residential area of Ras al-Nabaa with a vehicle loaded with explosives, blowing it up in front of the Mikhael Samaan school," the agency said.
It blamed the attack on terrorists, the standard regime for rebels.
The Britain-based Observatory said the bomb, outside an army housing complex and near an elementary school, killed 18 people, including two women and seven children.
Another 23 people were wounded, most of them women and children, the news agency quoted a medical source as saying.
In a video posted on a pro-government YouTube channel, crowds of men, women and children were seen standing around in shock at the widespread destruction.
Schoolbags and exercise books were seen strewn across the pavement among pools of blood and piles of rubble in the footage, which could not be independently verified.
Qatana is a working class town 21 km outside Damascus. It has a Sunni Muslim majority and a Christian minority, and is under army control.
AIRBUS says AirAsia, southeast Asia's top budget carrier, is ordering 100 additional A320 single-aisle jets in a deal greatly increasing the Malaysian-based carrier's orders for the European aircraft.
In a statement on Thursday Airbus said the deal brings the total number of A320 aircraft ordered or already delivered to AirAsia to 475.
AirAsia currently flies a fleet of 100 A320s out of bases in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila and Tokyo.
The new jets will allow AirAsia to open new routes and increase frequencies on flights to the Philippines and Japan, AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes said in a statement.
The deal includes orders for 64 of the A320neo, a revamped model which Airbus advertises as more fuel efficient version of the A320.
CNN has named former NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker as its new top executive.
Mr Zucker is replacing Jim Walton, who announced he was leaving this past summer.
Mr Zucker takes over a network that was the first in cable news but has lagged behind Fox News Channel and, often, MSNBC in the ratings and has been searching for direction.
Since leaving as chief of NBC Universal, Mr Zucker has been working with Katie Couric to put her talk show on the air. He spent many years as the top producer on NBC's Today show during its glory years in the 1990s.
TWO US-based internet-monitoring companies say Syria has shut off the Internet nationwide.
Activists in Syria reached Thursday by satellite telephone confirmed the unprecedented blackout, which comes amid intense fighting in the capital, Damascus.
Renesys, a U.S.-based network security firm that studies internet disruptions, says Syria effectively disappeared from the internet at 12:26pm local time.
Akamai Technologies, another U.S-based company that distributes content on the Internet, also confirmed a complete outage for Syria.
Syria has partially cut Internet connections during the 20-month uprising against President Bashar Assad but a nationwide shutdown is unprecedented.
STANDARD & Poor's has affirmed China's sovereign credit rating, another sign that the world's second largest economy is rebounding as Beijing prepares to usher in new leaders.
The ratings agency said China's "exceptional growth prospects" and "modest government indebtedness" were key factors supporting its creditworthiness. It also said China's outlook was "stable".
China's AA- long-term and A-1+ short-term sovereign credit ratings rank just below S&P's highest rating of triple-A.
S&P's credit analyst Kim Eng Tan said the upbeat assessment comes amid expectations of no major policy changes following the unveiling of new leaders at the Communist Party's pivotal congress earlier this month.
"We expect no major change in policy directions in China in the wake of the recent top leadership changes," he said.
"Efforts toward deepening structural and fiscal reforms are likely to continue.
"We expect the Chinese economy to continue its strong growth while the country maintains its large external creditor position in the next three to five years."
China's economic growth hit a more than three-year low of 7.4 per cent in the third quarter this year, but recent data has fuelled optimism that its economy is rebounding.
China is set to install new Communist Party general-secretary Xi Jinping as president in March, replacing incumbent Hu Jintao. While Li Keqiang is expected to replace current Premier Wen Jiabao.
A FIFTH young woman has died from injuries sustained in a stampede during a Halloween dance party in Madrid arena.
Spanish National Radio said 20-year-old Maria Teresa Alonso died in Madrid's Fundacion Jimenez Diaz hospital from brain injuries.
Three young women died in the stampede early Nov. 1 while a fourth woman died days later in another Madrid hospital.
Madrid authorities investigating the tragedy are probing whether the venue's maximum capacity of 10,600 people was exceeded on the night of the disco party that starred American DJ Steve Aoki.
The stampede occurred in a passageway leading to the central concert area of the Madrid Arena venue.
MORE than seven years after becoming embroiled in a phone hacking scandal that rocked the world's media, Australian woman Mary-Ellen Field has welcomed a British report into the affair.
The former business adviser to fashionista Elle Macpherson was one of 184 witnesses - including politicians and celebrities - to give evidence to the independent Leveson Inquiry, probing the culture, practice and ethics of the press.
Justice Brian Leveson on Thursday called for a new media regulatory system backed by law, including fines of up to STG1 million ($A1.5 million) for breaches.
"I think he's done an excellent job," Field told AAP from Sydney after hearing Justice Leveson's recommendations.
"There has been a lot of scaremongering about imposing statutory regulations ... and I would prefer there wasn't any, but (regulation) doesn't work otherwise. It has to have some mechanism to force (the press) to behave."
After some two years working together, Macpherson in 2005 called Field an alcoholic and blamed her for leaking personal stories to the press while drunk, leading to the end of the pair's relationship.
Now the head of a brand valuation company, Field was labelled an "innocent bystander" by Justice Leveson.
He wrote in the report that Field was among a sideline group "who are not even targeted or explicitly written about but become collateral damage because of the suspicions generated by subterfuge".
In her evidence to the inquiry on November 22, 2011, Field outlined the damage to her reputation and livelihood as the consequence of what she believed to be the hacking of Macpherson's voicemail.
"The inquiry has restored my reputation. As soon as I gave evidence I had past clients come forward and say 'why didn't you tell us?'. But it's tough to say, 'people are lying about me being a drunk'," Field said.
"It's seven years last Saturday since I was accused of doing this and really, the battle has only just begun. But it's in a part of my head now where I don't obsess about it. The truth is out there. We're on the right track."
Field filed a claim against News Group Newspapers - the Rupert Murdoch-owned operator of the former News of the World newspaper - in March 2011 and is legally prevented from speaking about the ongoing matter.
Macpherson's representatives were contacted for comment.
SPAIN is engulfed in a long recession with little hope of a quick recovery, the OECD club of industrialised nations says.
Spain must quickly fix its banks to avert the "substantial risk" of being cut off from external financing and plunging into an even deeper recession, the body has warned.
"The economy is undergoing a prolonged recession," the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report, citing the 2008 global financial crisis and the bust of a Spanish housing boom.
"The prospect of an immediate recovery remains remote," the OECD said, noting that people and businesses were struggling to repay debts and the nation was stuck in a debt crisis.
Addressing Spain's 25 per cent unemployment rate, the highest since the return to democracy after the death of general Francisco Franco in 1975, the OECD urged drastic labour market changes.
It called for cutting compensation for unfair dismissal, considering abolishing an extension of industry-wide collective bargaining, and more training and job search help for the young.
Spain's economy has been shrinking for 15 months, with output slumping 0.3 per cent in the third quarter, official data show, and the recession is expected to last right through 2013.
The OECD is forecasting Spain's gross domestic product will shrink 1.3 per cent in 2012 and decline by another 1.4 per cent in 2013 before a weak pickup of 0.5 per cent in 2014.
Spain's "immediate policy priority" is to restore trust in banks by fixing weak balance sheets, making orderly resolution of non-viable banks, and shifting bad assets into a new bad bank, the body said.
Spain's banks are struggling with loans turned sour after the property crash.
Eurozone powers agreed in June to extend to Madrid an emergency rescue loan of up to 100 billion euros ($A125 billion) to fix their balance sheets and reform the sector.
Now, Spain also is pondering whether to apply to the eurozone's bailout fund for a sovereign rescue, which would open the way for the European Central Bank to buy Spanish bonds and curb Madrid's borrowing costs.
OECD secretary general Angel Gurria called for Spain's European partners to make a declaration they would support Madrid in any bailout request.
"The thing we need now is to ask that Spain's European partners, given its performance, make an unequivocal declaration that in case Spain asks for support, that this support will be given," he told a news conference.
A
A US military judge has accepted the terms under which army private Bradley Manning could plead guilty to some charges that he passed secret documents to WikiLeaks.
But Judge Denise Lind's decision focused solely on the wording of a proposal from Private Manning and did not represent formal acceptance of his plea, which could come at future proceedings.
Judge Lind approved the wording for seven counts facing Pte Manning, accused of the worst secure data breach in American history.
The former intelligence analyst also faces 15 additional counts and military authorities would have to decide whether to press those charges.
The seven counts would carry a maximum punishment of 16 years in prison, the judge said at a pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland.
The plea proposal from Pte Manning would allow him to admit responsibility for leaking a trove of military intelligence logs and State Department cables, though not for every offence claimed by the government.
Under the proposal, Pte Manning would not face the grave charge of "aiding the enemy" which could send him to prison for life.
The decision came on the third day of a six-day pre-trial hearing, in which the defence is arguing for the case to be dismissed in its entirety due to alleged illegal punishment during Pte Manning's detention in 2010 to 2011 in Quantico, Virginia.
Pte Manning is expected to take the stand for the first time this week to testify about his harsh detention conditions at Quantico, in which he was held in a solitary cell for at least 23 hours a day and ordered to strip at night.
AUSTRALIANS are living longer and the extra years are coming "disability free", new figures from the federal government show.
In the decade to 2009, life expectancy at birth jumped 3.4 years to 79.3 for men. Life expectancy for women rose 2.4 years to 83.9.
Over the same period the number of years men can expect to live without disability rose 3.7 to 61.6 years. For women the figure jumped 2.2 to 64.3 years.
"The good news is when it comes to these additional years many are disability free," Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) senior executive Brent Diverty told AAP.
The AIHW report "Changes in life expectancy and disability", released on Friday, notes that a large part of the growth in expected disability-free years occurred between 2003 and 2009.
That period saw disability rates decline for the first time in 30 years at the same time as there was a relatively slow growth in life expectancy.
The most recent life expectancy figures - for the 10 years to 2011 - were released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier in November.
They show a baby boy born today can expect to live 79.7 years. A girl can expect to live until she's 84.2.
The gap between the sexes is closing over time but, as Mr Diverty says, "it's difficult to say if it will ever completely close".
Life expectancy in Australia rose markedly from the beginning of the 20th century as a result of improvements in sanitation, healthcare and nutrition. Declining smoking rates helped later on.
A dolphin being flown from the Philippines to Singapore has died in transit. Source: Supplied
ONE of 25 dolphins being transferred to a Singapore oceanarium despite protests from activists has died during its flight to the city-state.
Wen Wen, a male dolphin aged about 10, died suddenly less than an hour before the flight from the Philippines landed, a Marine Life Park spokesperson said.
The spokesperson of the park - which opened to the public for the first time yesterday and is part of the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) casino - said the dolphin appeared fine when medically examined before the flight.
"We are deeply saddened... he will be sorely missed," the spokesperson said.
The other 24 bottlenose dolphins had arrived and were acclimatising to their new home.
"No effort or resources will be spared in ensuring the health and well-being of our dolphins and all marine animals at Marine Life Park," the statement said.
Wen Wen is the third dolphin to die out of 27 which RWS acquired from the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific between 2008 amd 2009.
Wildlife activists in the Philippines - where the dolphins were kept and trained before being exported to Singapore - filed a lawsuit last month to stop them from being flown out.
They said the dolphins' capture violated an international treaty on the trade in endangered animals and plants.
A court in the Philippines initially agreed to a temporary ban on transferring the dolphins but another court overturned it.
A Singapore-based animal rights group also opposed the inclusion of the dolphins in the marine park, saying catching them from the Solomon Islands is detrimental to the survival of the species there.
The remaining 24 dolphins are due to make their public debut at the park's twin attractions the S.E.A Aquarium and Adventure Cove Waterpark only next year.
The aquarium is touted as the world's largest with 100,000 marine animals from over 800 species in 45 million litres of water.
A KUWAITI court has freed three Twitter users on bail after detaining them for nine days for allegedly insulting the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state, a rights activist says.
A fourth tweeter however remained in detention as his case will be heard by a court on Sunday, the director of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, Mohammad al-Humaidi, said on his Twitter account.
One of the tweeters was freed on bail of $US3550 ($A3440) and the other two on $US17,700 each, Humaidi said. Their trial is set for December.
The four were arrested on November 14 and held in police custody pending further investigation on accusations they wrote tweets deemed offensive to Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
Three other Twitter users, including a woman, had been arrested with them but only remained hours in custody before being each freed on bail of $US3550.
Kuwait has clamped down on opposition activists and Twitter users mainly on accusations of undermining the status of the emir as the country heads to general polls on December 1 amid a bitter political dispute.
Several former opposition MPs and activists are facing trial over similar charges. Public criticism of the ruler is illegal under the Kuwaiti constitution.
The scene outside the Chevron Renaissance in Surfers Paradise after a person fell from one of the high rise towers. Picture: Glenn Hampson Source: The Courier-Mail
POLICE investigating the death of a 17-year-old girl who fell from a balcony at Schoolies celebrations on the Gold Coast say it's a "tragic end to a successful week".
The girl fell to her death last night from a balcony on Tower Three of the Cheveron Renaissance complex at 9.30pm.
Police said CPR was performed on the girl at the scene, but she could not be revived.
Speaking from Gold Coast Police Headquarters at midnight, Inspector Pat Swindells called for any witnesses to the fatal fall to come forward.
"We have no further information at this stage We're trying to ascertain what's happened," Insp Swindells said.
"It's a tragic end to a successful week."
Police said they were speaking to members of the girl's family.
The scene outside the Chevron Renaissance in Surfers Paradise after a person fell from one of the high rise towers. Picture: Glenn Hampson
They described a scene of panic as schoolies watched in disbelief while paramedics rushed to the girl.
A schoolie on the 24th floor wrote on Facebook: "Someone just jumped off the Chevron balcony 2 floors down from us! Can Freaking see them and oh god paramedics everywhere and the building is in lockdown. This is as scary as hell."
The death is a massive blow to Schoolies organisers, who had presided over a relatively quiet week until tonight's tragedy.
Up to 30,000 Year 12 graduates are in Surfers Paradise for the rite of passage Schoolies festival.
One witness told the ABC he saw the girl fall onto the pool area of the hotel.
The scene outside the Chevron Renaissance in Surfers Paradise after a person fell from one of the high rise towers. Picture: Glenn Hampson
"A girl fell off the balcony - just watched her fall," schoolie Seb Giorgio said.
"I didn't want to watch."
Rory, a barman across the road from the Towers Of Chevron Renaissance, said hundreds of schoolies were standing outside the hotel after the incident.
"I saw 200 schoolies out the front of the building, two ambulance (crews), there were cops everywhere," he told AAP.
Insp Swindells refused to speculate on what may have happened, unable to confirm if drugs or alcohol had played a part in the girl's fall from the high rise.
"Any incident in a high rise is a concern," he said.
The scene from the Chevron Renaissance in Surfers Paradise, with people looking on after a person fell from a balcony in Tower Three. Picture: Glenn Hampson
He warned the class of 2012 to take care while partying for the remainder of the week.
"This week of schoolies has been a fantastic week. The young people who have been coming to Surfers Paradise have been exemplary in their behaviour."
Police said investigations into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy were ongoing.
The tragedy comes just days after 18-year-old Cameron Cox was photographed sleeping on a ledge on the 11th floor of the Surfers Hawaiian Holiday Apartments. The photo, taken by a fellow schoolie and posted on Instagram, sparked national safety discussions.
The Courier-Mail reported this month police were planning a balcony blitz to target high-rises, as debate raged over whether high-rise balconies should be locked off during the annual party.
Three people fell to their deaths from Gold Coast skyscrapers last month.
Police have previously ordered some balconies be closed, but pressure was mounting in the lead up to this year's festival for a full balcony lock-up.
It is understood coast unit managers have considered the move, but didn't follow through.
Matt Lloyd, who runs the accommodation website schoolies.com, told The Courier-Mail this month any decision to lock balcony doors could not be made hastily.
"A lot of students book a year in advance and they are paying for rooms they expect to have balconies," he said.
-- with AAP
FOR one month the dreams kept coming. The voice, the shots, the blood. Her friend Malala slumped over.
Shazia Ramazan, 13, who was wounded by the same Taliban gunman who shot her friend Malala Yousufzai, returned home last week after a month in a hospital, where she had to relearn how to use her left arm and hand. Memories of the Taliban bullets that ripped into her remain, but she is welcoming the future.
"For a long time it seemed fear was in my heart. I couldn't stop it," she said. "But now I am not afraid," she added, self-consciously rubbing her left hand where a bullet pierced straight through just below the thumb.
Now Shazia and her friend Kainat Riaz, who was also shot, return to school for the first time since the October 8 attack when a Taliban gunman opened fire on Malala outside the Khushal School for Girls, wounding Shazia and Kainat in the frenzy of bullets.
Malala is still undergoing treatment and unable to come back. But among her friends in her hometown of Mingora in the idyllic Swat Valley, she is a hero.
"Malala was very brave and she was always friendly with everyone. We are proud of her," said the 16-year-old Kainat, wrapped in a large purple shawl and sitting on a traditional rope bed. Her mother Manawar, a health worker, sat by her side, praised her daughter's bravery and with a smile said: "She gets her courage from me." Although conservative and refusing to have her picture taken, Kainat's mother slammed attacks on girls' education and warned Pakistan will fail if girls are not educated.
Quick to laugh, Kainat - who comes from a long line of educators in her family - looked forward to returning to school. "I want to study. I am not afraid," she said.
The authorities however are not taking any chances. Armed policemen have been deployed to both Shazia's and Kainat's home and will escort them both to school.
Kainat's home is hidden behind high walls with 2.4m-high steel gates, tucked away in a neighborhood of brown square cement buildings. A foul smelling sewer runs the length of the street where armed policemen patrol, eyeing everyone suspiciously.
Outside Shazia's home, a policeman wearing a bullet proof vest sits on a plastic garden chair with a Kalashnikov resting across his knees. Three policemen patrol a nearby narrow street that is flanked by roaring open fires where vats of hot oil boil and sticky sweets are made and sold.
Shazia, who has ambitions to become an army doctor, is a stubborn teenager. She doesn't want the police escort.
"They say I need the police. But I say I don't need any police," she said, pushing her glasses firmly back on her nose. "I don't want the police to come with me to school because then I will stand out from the other students. But I shouldn't."
At their school, the students are quick to attack the Taliban and display a giant poster of Malala. The school, which has more than 500 students, only closed its doors briefly at the height of the Taliban's hold on the region in 2008 and early 2009. It was then that Malala began to blog, recording her unhappiness with Taliban edicts ordering girls out of school.
Although she was barely 9 years old then, Shazia remembers those days.
"Times were very bad. Girls were hiding their books under their burqas. Compared to then, now is a very good time," she said, her pink shawl covering her head. "We are strong."
Both the army and the police are deployed outside the school, whose name means "happy," and journalists were not permitted to pass its black iron gate until last week when an Associated Press reporter and photographer were allowed inside. Authorities feared drawing attention, but the students within seemed unconcerned, often offering words of support for Malala and saying they weren't afraid to come to school.
Even the most shy among them would whisper in a friend's ear to say: "Tell her I will not stop studying."
Each morning the school principal gave the students a progress report on Malala's condition.
"She is getting better every day and she asks about all of us and what we are doing," said 15-year-old Mahnoor, one of Malala's close friends. "When it happened we just cried and prayed. We weren't worried for ourselves. We were just worried for her."
Twelve-year-old Emar said of the Taliban: "They are thinking that she is a girl and she cannot do anything. They are thinking that only boys can do things. They are wrong. Girls can do anything."
In a strong voice and speaking in English, Gulranga Ali, 17, said students have "gotten courage from her (Malala) and everyone is attending school. No one is staying home." She said the attack has turned the country against extremists and "now every girl and child is saying 'I want to be Malala.'"
Malala's father says the family will return to Pakistan after his daughter is well enough.
But even her classmates worry for her safety.
"I don't think she will come for education anymore in Swat. She will not be safe here. Now she is a celebrity," said Gulranga.
There is also a deepening concern that Malala's attacker has not been arrested, that the outrage her shooting generated throughout Pakistan has subsided without substantive changes and that fear will prevent real change.
Ahmed Saeed, a close friend of Malala's father, said politicians and Pakistan's military establishment still have to decide if they will support Malala's worldview or that of the Taliban. Saeed said the teenager will have another operation in three months to reconstruct her skull but that she is talking and walking "and gossiping with her family."
In what has been cheered as a first step toward compulsory education for both boys and girls in Pakistan, Parliament last week introduced legislation making it a crime to keep a child at home. Offending parents can be fined upward of $500.
Still, earlier this month the Taliban attacked on a busload of girls returning from school in the tribal regions, throwing acid in their faces. In a statement, the Taliban accused the girls of embracing the West through education.
"I don't know if this has changed Pakistan," Shazia's father said of the shooting. Still, he wants his daughter to continue at school.
"Now I want to be an example to other girls," Shazia said. "They (Taliban) can't stop us from going to school."
AN Israeli reserves officer has died of wounds sustained in a rocket attack that occurred hours before a truce to end eight days of violence in and around Gaza was agreed between Israel and Hamas.
A statement from the Israeli army named the casualty as "Lieutenant Boris Yarmulnik, 28 years old from Netanya", who "died of his wounds ... after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit the Eshkol Regional Council (Wednesday) afternoon".
His death on Thursday raises the toll of Israelis killed by rocket fire from Gaza to six since November 14, two of them soldiers.
A total of 163 Palestinians died in the eight-day Israeli air operation directed against Gaza militants firing rockets into the Jewish state.
The truce to end the fighting was announced in Cairo on Wednesday evening, with both sides expected to stop cross-border fire and Gaza rulers Hamas expected to enforce its terms on the various militant groups in the Palestinian territory.
During the eight eight-day operation, the army said it hit more than 1500 targets, as Gaza militants fired 1354 rockets over the border, 421 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.
A TEENAGE girl has died after falling from the balcony of a high-rise hotel on the Gold Coast during schoolies celebrations.
The girl, believed to be a schoolie, fell from the Chevron Renaissance tower in Surfers Paradise.
Police will only say a woman has died after falling off the balcony of a Gold Coast Highway high rise at 9.30pm (AEST) on Thursday.
They are speaking to members of the family and could not immediately confirm whether she'd been part of schoolies festivities.
One witness told the ABC he saw the girl fall onto the hotel's pool deck.
"A girl fell off the balcony and (I) just watched her fall," schoolie Seb Georgio said.
"I didn't want to watch."
Rory, a barman across the road from the Towers Of Chevron Renaissance, said hundreds of schoolies were standing outside the hotel following the incident.
"I saw 200 schoolies out the front of the building, two ambulance (crews), there were cops everywhere," he told AAP.
This is the sixth death from a balcony fall on the Gold Coast in the past 12 months.
Earlier this week, a photo of a drunk schoolie lying on the ledge of a Gold Coast high rise sparked renewed warnings.
Cameron Cox, 18, took a nap on the unfenced 11th floor ledge on Monday and photos of the incident were posted online.
He told the media he was drunk at the time and climbed out a window for the thrill, and to get some fresh air.
But if he'd rolled over he would have plummeted to his death.
The prank ended his end of school celebrations, with the Hawaiian Holiday Apartments at Surfers Paradise telling AAP he'd been ordered to leave.
But police inspector Pat Swindells said the girl's death was a tragedy during an otherwise good week of schoolies festivities.
"Young people who've come to Surfers Paradise have been exemplary in their behaviour and this is a very tragic incident that has occurred during what has been a very good week," he told reporters.
PRINCE Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will spend the final day of their six-day tour of New Zealand in quake-ravaged Christchurch.
The royals are in the country on the final leg of their Diamond Jubilee tour representing the Queen.
The prince and duchess arrive in Christchurch about midday NZ time (1000 AEDT) on Friday and they'll be welcomed at the Christchurch City Council by mayor Bob Parker, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Agency (CERA) chief executive Roger Sutton.
From there the royals will meet privately with 20 people who were seriously injured in the deadly February 22, 2011 quake and their caregivers.
They'll then visit some of the areas of the city hardest hit by the quake, including the central business district red zone.
In addition to seeing some of the quake's devastating impacts first hand, the couple will also get a sense of the work that's being done to rebuild the city.
The royals will visit the Re:Start shipping container mall on Cashel Street, where they'll meet Sam Johnson, the founder of the student volunteer army which helped with much of the post-quake clean-up.
The final public engagement of the royal tour will be a trip to the 150th Canterbury A&P show with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Minister for Primary Industries David Carter.
Prince Charles and Camilla depart Christchurch bound for Britain on Friday night.
SPAIN has announced a two-year halt to evictions of the most vulnerable home owners as a public outcry mounts over suicides linked to desperate people facing expulsion.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's right-leaning government says it has it agreed on the moratorium "for humanitarian reasons" and the new measure is restricted to those most in need.
"These are urgent measures in difficult circumstances linked to the crisis", Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told a news conference on Thursday after a weekly government meeting.
The Spanish Banking Association said Monday it was freezing mortgage-related evictions for two years in extreme cases. Savings banks, too, suspended expulsions while awaiting new government rules.
Many people were shocked by two suicides in 15 days by indebted homeowners facing expulsion in Spain, where both banks and borrowers were hammered by a 2008 property crash.
On November 9, 53-year-old former Socialist politician Amaia Egana jumped out of her apartment window to her death in the northern Basque municipality of Barakaldo as bailiffs were set to evict her.
Her suicide came 15 days after 53-year-old Jose Luis Domingo hanged himself shortly before bailiffs came to turn him out of his home in the southern city of Granada.
FORTY-FOUR people have been killed in new fighting between the Congolese army and M23 rebels, ending a two-month ceasefire.
Both sides have blamed the other for starting the fighting.
"The M23 has attacked us around 5am this morning," Colonel Olivier Hamuli said on Thursday, adding that the fighting against 700 rebels continued until about 3pm.
Forty-four M23 fighters were killed in the battle, the governor of North Kivu province, Julien Paluku, told The Associated Press by phone.
But the M23 rebels said the Congolese army initiated the hostilities. On Saturday, the political branch spokesman, Bertrand Bisimwa, accused the army of attacking the rebels in Kitagoma, near the Ugandan border.
However, local sources say the attack in Kitagoma was carried out by an armed group allied with the M23 and the rebels are only looking for an excuse to start fighting again.
The spokesman for the United Nations mission in Congo (MONUSCO), Manodje Munubai, also confirmed Thursday's clash.
Since August, members of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region have been holding talks in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, to try to find a solution to the conflict. There had been a de facto ceasefire during the mediation, but tensions mounted on the ground over the past two weeks as the talks seemed to be reaching a dead end.
Troop movements increased on both sides of the frontline, triggering skirmishes between the rebels and the army.
Direct fighting finally broke out Thursday in Rugari, the town between the M23 and the Congolese army positions, only 30 kilometres from Goma, the provincial capital, and around 15km from Kanyaruchinya, a camp where more than 60,000 people have sought refuge from the conflict since June.
More than 250 families fled the fighting on Thursday and arrived at the Kanyaruchinya camp, said a witness contacted by AP in Goma.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. Source: AFP
THE 17-country eurozone has fallen back into recession for the first time in three years as the fallout continues from the region's financial crisis.
And with surveys pointing to increasingly depressed conditions across the 17-member group that uses the euro at a time of high unemployment in many countries, there are fears that the recession will deepen, and make the debt crisis - which has been calmer of late - even more difficult to handle.
Official figures overnight showed that the eurozone contracted by 0.1 per cent in the July to September period from the quarter before as economies including Germany and the Netherlands suffer from falling demand.
The decline reported by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, was in line with market expectations and follows on from the 0.2 per cent fall recorded in the second quarter. As a result, the eurozone is officially in recession, commonly defined as two straight quarters of falling output.
"The eurozone economy will continue its decline in Q4 and probably well into 2013 too - a good backdrop for another debt crisis," said Michael Taylor, an economist at Lombard Street Research.
Because of the eurozone's gruelling three-year debt crisis, the region has been the major focus of concern for the world economy. The eurozone economy is worth around 9.5 trillion euros ($11.6 trillion) which puts it on a par with the US. The region, with its 332 million people, is the US's largest export customer, and any fall-off in demand will hit order books.
While the US has managed to bounce back from its own savage recession in 2008-09, albeit inconsistently, and China continues to post strong growth, Europe's economies have been on a downward spiral - and there is little sign of any improvement in the near-term.
The eurozone had managed to avoid returning to recession for the first time since the financial crisis following the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, mainly thanks to the strength of its largest single economy, Germany.
But even that country is now struggling as confidence wanes and exports drain in light of the economic problems afflicting large chunks of the eurozone.
Germany's economy grew 0.2 per cent in the third quarter, down from a 0.3 per cent increase in the previous quarter. Over the past year, Germany's annual growth rate has more than halved to 0.9 per cent from 1.9 per cent.
Perhaps the most dramatic decline among the eurozone's members was seen in the Netherlands, whose economy shrank 1.1 per cent on the previous quarter.
Five eurozone countries are in recession - Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Cyprus. Those five are also at the centre of Europe's debt crisis and are imposing austerity measures, such as cuts to wages and pensions and increases to taxes, in an attempt to stay afloat.
As well as hitting workers' incomes and living standards, these measures have also led to a decline in economic output and a sharp increase in unemployment.
Spain and Greece have unemployment rates of over 25 per cent. Their young people are faring even worse with every other person out of work. As well as being a cost to governments who have to pay out more for benefits, it carries a huge social and human cost.
Protests across Europe on Wednesday highlighted the scale of discontent and with economic surveys pointing to the downturn getting worse, the voices of anger may well get louder still.
"The likelihood is that this anger will continue to grow unless European leaders and policymakers start to act as if they have a clue as to how to resolve the crisis starting to unravel before their eyes," said Michael Hewson, markets analyst at CMC Markets.
Europe has no doubt made some progress this year in allaying some of the worst fears in the markets, notably through the announcement of new bond-buying program from the European Central Bank. However, with Greece still teetering on the edge and the eurozone in recession, the economic storms are never far away.
Mario Draghi, the ECB's president has been widely credited for helping foster the more optimistic tone in the markets but he admits there's still a long way to go.
"The year that is about to end will be remembered not only for the effects the European sovereign debt crisis has had on the euro and for the significant weakening of the European economy, but also for the responses to these challenges by the ECB, national governments and the European Union," he said in a speech at Univerisita Bocconi in Milan.
"Ultimately, it is up to governments to dispel once and for all the persistent uncertainties that markets perceive and citizens fear," Mr Draghi added.
The wider 27-nation EU, which includes non-euro countries, avoided the same recession fate as the eurozone. Eurostat said the EU's output rose 0.1 per cent during the third quarter, largely on the back of an Olympics-related boost in Britain.
The EU's output as a whole is greater than the US It is also a major source of sales for the world's leading companies. Forty percent of McDonald's global revenue comes from Europe - more than it generates in the US General Motors, meanwhile, sold 1.7 million vehicles in Europe last year, a fifth of its worldwide sales.
LUKE Skywalker and Princess Leia have outmuscled little green army men for a spot in the US National Toy Hall of Fame.
Star Wars action figures have joined centuries-old dominoes in the class of 2012.
The hall in Rochester, New York, announced the inductees on Thursday. A committee chose them from among 12 finalists.
Star Wars action figures went on the market in 1978, following the 1977 release of the 20th Century Fox movie.
The 10cm figures of Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and company were sold until 1985 and again from the mid-1990s to today. Dominoes originated in China in the 1300s.
The toys beat out Clue, the Fisher-Price Corn Popper, Lite-Brite, the Magic 8 Ball, the pogo stick, sidewalk chalk, Simon, the tea set and Twister.
BRITISH energy giant BP says it has agreed to pay more than $US4.5 billion ($A4.36 billion) in US fines related to the devastating 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including $US4 billion in criminal claims.
"The aggregate amount of the resolution is approximately $US4.5 billion, with payments scheduled over a period of six years," BP said in a statement on Thursday.
US stocks have zig-zagged around the break-even line in volatile early trade after a sharp fall the previous day, with Walmart's disappointing revenues in its third quarter report pushing its shares lower.
After an hour of Thursday trade, shares were mixed following two sharp direction reverses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 8.76 points (0.07 per cent) to 12,577.79.
The broad-market S&P 500 added 2.02 (0.15 per cent) to 1,357.51, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite lost 2.05 (0.07 per cent) at 2,844.76.
Walmart's shares fell four per cent to $US68.39 on quarterly earnings that showed a nine per cent rise in net income to $US3.63 billion, but revenue at stores climbed only 1.5 per cent, below expectations.
The company also admitted in a document filed to the SEC that in addition to the US investigation into allegations the company bribed Mexican officials, that probes were under way on possible corruption act violations in Brazil, China and India.
Also on the Dow, Bank of America and Caterpillar were both up 1.5 per cent, while Procter and Gamble fell 0.9 per cent.
On the Nasdaq, Apple shares fell 1.1 per cent.
Facebook edged 1.4 per cent lower after surging nearly 13 per cent Wednesday amid a rush of short-covering linked to previous expectations the shares would sink when restrictions on insider share selling were lifted this week.
United Airlines shares were off 1.2 per cent amid reports of widespread flight cancellations due to a computer glitch.
Bond prices were slightly lower.
The 10-year US Treasury yield rose to 1.60 per cent from 1.59 per cent, and the 30-year rose to 2.74 per cent from 2.73 per cent.
Bond prices and yields move inversely.
INTERPOL has elected a French police commissioner known for her drive against organised crime in Bordeaux and Corsica as its first female president at its general assembly in Rome.
"Mireille Balestrazzi of France becomes the first woman to be elected president of Interpol," the world's top association of crime-fighters said on Twitter.
Balestrazzi, 58, became a police commissioner in France in 1975 and was already vice-president for Europe on Interpol's executive committee.
She is particularly well known for her time as director of judicial police in Corsica in the 1990s at a time of fierce turf wars on the island.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who attended the Interpol assembly earlier this week, said Balestrazzi was "a great police woman".
"She is one of the women who are the pride of the French police," he said.
Valls said her experience with organised crime would serve her well in fighting drug trafficking, mafias from southern and eastern Europe as well as growing political violence that requires a coordinated international response.
AT LEAST 16 Syrian soldiers and 10 rebels were killed on Thursday in heavy clashes in the northwestern town of Ras al-Ain near the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"Ten rebels and 16 soldiers have been killed so far in fighting for the majority Kurdish border town of Ras al-Ain," its head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, after Turkish media said two Turks were wounded by bullets from the Syrian side.
PARAMEDICS across NSW will don yellow vests on Friday to draw attention to what they call dangerous and chronic under-staffing.
The Health Services Union (HSU) claims the state's Ambulance Service is running with 770 fewer full-time positions than necessary.
Staff numbers have remained at a standstill for a decade despite a workload increase of four per cent each year, the union says, and changes to rural rosters have left some paramedics on call for 160 hours straight.
The HSU's acting industrial manager, Tom Stevanja, said existing staffing and roster arrangements left paramedics vulnerable to fatigue and put patients at risk.
"Response times are blowing out and patients are suffering for it," Mr Stevanja said in a statement.
"We've got crews from Singleton responding to emergencies in Muswellbrook because there's no local crew available.
"One officer recently had to respond on lights and sirens 85 kilometres from Macksville to Woolgoolga. In Sydney, the Hunter and the Illawarra there's no cover for paramedics tied up for hours at hospitals."
AFTER mingling at the Melbourne Cup, enjoying an outback Queensland barbie and sampling South Australian wine, Charles and Camilla will begin the Sydney leg of their whirlwind Australian tour on Friday.
After arriving at Kingsford Smith Airport on Thursday night, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will make their first stop at Garden Island in Sydney Harbour, where they will meet Australian Defence Force personnel and their families.
From there, Charles is to attend a Campaign for Wool event at Circular Quay, before heading to Bondi for an emergency services reception hosted by NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell.
The Prince will then attend a corporate social responsibility function put on by the National Rugby League and Community One, also at Bondi.
Meanwhile, Camilla will be appointed colonel-in-chief of the Royal Australian Corps of Military Police at Government House.
In the early evening, the royal couple are due to cross the harbour by barge to the Sydney Opera House for a reception with NSW Governor Marie Bashir.
The royal couple's busy day will conclude with a reception at Kirribilli House with Governor-General Quentin Bryce.
Charles and Camilla will fly out of Sydney for Canberra on Saturday morning.
The royals are on a 13-day tour of the southern hemisphere and are in Australia for six days as part of the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations.
On the tour they have already met World War II veterans of the Kokoda Campaign in Papua New Guinea, sampled an "Aussie" barbecue in Longreach, Queensland, and attended the Melbourne Cup.
On Wednesday, they enjoyed South Australian wine and cheese in Adelaide, before flying to Tasmania for a five-hour stopover on Thursday.
UNITED Airlines, the world's largest airline, says superstorm Sandy cut its October revenue by about $US90 million ($A87 million) as it was forced to cancel almost 5300 flights.
That's nearly an entire day's worth of United's schedule lost.
It runs about 5500 flights a day throughout the world.
United said late on Wednesday that last week's storm in the US Northeast shaved about $US35 million off its profit in October.
But the hurricane-driven storm boosted its per-passenger revenue by about one per cent. That's because some stranded travellers were moved onto other flights, allowing the airline to improve efficiency.
Delta said last week Sandy cut its October revenue by $US45 million and profit by $US20 million.
United parent United Continental Holdings Inc is based in Chicago.
US weekly jobless claims fell modestly last week for the third straight week, showing no immediate impact from Hurricane Sandy, the Labor Department says.
New claims for unemployment insurance, a signal of the pace of layoffs, fell to 355,000 in the week to November 2 from 363,000 the prior week, despite the massive storm which shut down much of New Jersey and the New York City area for the period.
A Labor Department analyst said on Thursday the effect of the storm, which left more than 100 people dead in the US and Canada, would not show up in the data for several weeks.
The four-week moving average of claims moved higher to 370,500, still largely in the range where the data has been since the beginning of 2012.
US Army Private Bradley Manning has offered to plead guilty to some of the charges of passing government information to WikiLeaks. Source: Getty Images
A US soldier accused of leaking a trove of secret files to WikiLeaks has offered to plead guilty to some but not all of the charges he faces in a pending court-martial, his defence lawyer said.
Bradley Manning, 24, "is not pleading guilty to the specifications as charged by the Government," his attorney, David Coombs wrote on his blog.
"Rather, PFC (Private First Class) Manning is attempting to accept responsibility for offenses that are encapsulated within, or are a subset of, the charged offenses," he wrote.
It was up to a military court to rule whether his plea was "legally permissible," and then government prosecutors would have to decide if they would continue to pursue all the charges against Pte Manning, he said.
"PFC Manning is not submitting a plea as part of an agreement or deal with the Government," Mr Coombs added.
The defence relayed the offer to a military judge at pre-trial hearings being held at Fort Meade, Maryland on Wednesday and Thursday.
By making the offer, Pte Manning indicated he was ready to plead guilty to passing government information to WikiLeaks, though it was unclear if he would admit to passing all the files cited by prosecutors.
If the plea is deemed legal by the court, it could potentially simplify the trial, which is due to start on February 4, 2013, and possibly shield Pte Manning from being convicted on more serious federal offenses related to computer fraud and the Espionage Act.
Pte Manning had the option of being tried by a military jury but he informed the court he preferred to be tried by a judge only, according to Mr Coombs.
Arrested in May 2010 while serving as an army intelligence analyst near Baghdad, Iraq, Pte Manning is charged with leaking classified military intelligence files on Iraq and Afghanistan and about 260,000 cables from the US State Department.
The publication of the sensitive files by the secret-spilling WikiLeaks website, founded by Australian Julian Assange, caused huge embarrassment to Washington and angered US allies.
Elzbieta Plackowska, 40, who was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of her 7-year-old son and a 5-year-old girl. Source: AP
PROSECUTORS say a suburban Chicago woman stabbed her 7-year-old son more than 100 times and a 5-year-old girl about 50 times and slit both their throats because she was angry with her husband.
A DuPage County judge ordered 40-year-old Elzbieta Plackowska of Naperville held without bond.
Prosecutor Robert Berlin says Ms Plackowska gave investigators several stories about Tuesday's killings but eventually said she killed her son, Justin, because she was angry that her truck driver husband left her alone to care for the child.
Mr Berlin says Ms Plackowska then killed the girl she was babysitting, Olivia Dworakowski, because the child had witnessed the attack on her son.
Ms Plackowska didn't speak during the hearing overnight other than to indicate she could not afford an attorney.
AUTOMAKERS in India have reported better-than-expected sales in the month of October, with a slew of new vehicle models also set to be launched in the upcoming festive season.
India's largest passenger carmaker Maruti Suzuki, recovering from riots at one of its plants, posted a smart 85.5 per cent year-on-year rise in October sales.
Its rivals also showed improved sales, despite hefty taxes, elevated fuel prices and stubborn inflation that has kept interest rates high, pushing up the cost of auto loans.
Maruti Suzuki India, majority-owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, said car sales in October soared to 103,108 vehicles due to a low base effect from last year, when sales were down due to protracted labour troubles.
It was hit again by labour unrest in July - the worst ever in its three-decade history - that left a manager dead and nearly 100 other executives injured at its Manesar plant, which is responsible for 40 per cent of its output.
The local unit of Hyundai Motor showed a 21 per cent rise in total sales to 58,785 vehicles in October.
Ford India sales edged up 5.35 per cent to 10,948 vehicles in October, while Honda reported a 46 per cent rise in sales, led by Honda City and Brio models.
Tata Motors, which owns British luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover, said its October car sales rose six per cent to 71,771 vehicles, with growth seen across all segments.
India, which has been one of the world's fastest-growing car markets in recent years, has been suffering a slowdown in demand as some buyers defer purchases due to expensive loans and high fuel costs.
Many new models will be launched in the country in the coming weeks, with the Diwali festival on November 13 seen as an auspicious time for major purchases.
The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers had predicted sales growth of between one and three per cent in October, down from an earlier 10-to-12 per cent projection.
THE number of deaths in New York City from superstorm Sandy has risen again, from 24 to 34, city police say.
The increase raises the national toll to 82 across 15 US states hit by the storm, according to US media reports.
The overall toll from the storm thus went up to 154, including fatalities in Canada and the Caribbean, where Haiti and Cuba were hit particularly hard.
In New York the majority of those killed were hit by trees that fell on their homes or cars as the storm whipped into the city.
Others were electrocuted when they stepped in water electrified by downed power cables, or drowned in the storm surge that flooded into homes at the peak of the storm.
Sandy hit the east coast on Monday night, with violent winds that carried unprecedented amounts of water into parts of New York City. The storm caused massive power outages, plunging much of lower Manhattan into darkness.
FORD says Alan Mulally will remain as president and chief executive through at least 2014, as Americas chief Mark Fields was promoted to chief operating officer, putting him in line to succeed Mullaly.
Mulally, 67, will continue to lead the automaker's long-term development strategy while Fields, 51, will be responsible for all business operations at the number-two US automaker.
"I have a great opportunity to focus even more on the long-term development," Mulally said in a conference call on Thursday.
Fields has been with Ford since 1989 and will take his new position on December 1. He has been executive vice-president and president of Ford's Americas operation for the past seven years and will continue to report to Mulally.
Ford recruited Mulally from Boeing in 2006 as the company was struggling with bloated operations, unpopular vehicles and a steady loss of market share to Asian competitors.
Mulally led Ford through the 2008 financial crisis without seeking a government-backed bankruptcy and bailout, unlike General Motors and Chrysler, steering the company back to steady profits.
"There's been so much speculation on whether Alan is going to stay or leave," chairman Bill Ford said in the conference call.
"I'd like him to stay forever, but it's part of our job to develop a great team," he said, adding: "I'd be surprised if we don't have the next CEO coming from inside."
The announcement came two days after Ford posted a record third-quarter profit of $US1.6 billion ($A1.55 billion) as strong growth in North America offset major losses in Europe.
Ford has now posted pre-tax profits for 13 consecutive quarters as it reaps the rewards of major restructuring and product revamps in North America. But troubled Europe remains a dark cloud and the company's unit there is projected to post a $US1.5 billion loss this year.
Joe Hinrichs, 45, will replace Fields as president of the Americas after having led Ford's operations in Asia and Africa.
David Schoch, currently head of Ford China, will succeed Hinrichs in managing the Asia-Pacific region.
Responsibility for African operations will be transferred to Stephen Odell, who is currently in charge of Europe and the Middle East.
BURMA'S parliament has approved a revised, more business-friendly foreign investment bill aimed at boosting the struggling economy as it emerges from decades of junta rule, lawmakers say.
The bill is expected to be signed into law within days by reformist president Thein Sein, who sent an earlier draft back to parliament amid concerns that it was too protectionist.
"I think the law will be quite flexible and easier for foreign investors," Zaw Htay, an official at the presidential office, told AFP by telephone.
"The previous law had restrictions which could be barriers. Even some foreign experts described it as the 'No Investment Law'," he said.
An earlier limit of 50 per cent for a foreign investor's stake in a joint venture has been dropped at Thein Sein's request, and the new version allows the investment ratio to be decided by the foreign and local partners, MPs said.
More detailed rules for each sector will be drawn up by the Burma Investment Commission.
"The law became more flexible for foreign investors. The former version had many restrictions," said Myat Nyana Soe, a lawmaker with Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy opposition party.
The move comes as global corporate giants from Coca-Cola to General Electric line up to enter the impoverished but resource-rich nation, which is emerging from decades of military rule and international isolation.
One of the major complaints of businesses eager to enter the country has been the lack of a clear legal framework.
Burma is seen by many investors as the next regional frontier market as businesses eye its huge natural resources, large population and strategic location between China and India.
Thein Sein has vowed to put the economy at the centre of a new series of reforms, following dramatic political changes since almost half a century of outright military rule ended last year.
DAMAGE from the deadly mega-storm that blasted the US east coast could hit $US50 billion ($A48 billion), disaster estimator Eqecat says.
The company put total economic damage from Hurricane Sandy in the range of $US30-50 billion, and insured damages at $US10-20 billion, double its earlier estimate.
Eqecat said it had revised its estimates for the storm, which ploughed into the US Atlantic coastline at heavily populated New Jersey on Monday, because of the extensive losses from power and other utilities, which it said were much greater than those for most category one hurricanes.
It also cited the extended shutdowns of subways and road tunnels in the New York-New Jersey area due to flooding, and expectations there are many more losses yet unknown.
The storm devastated the New Jersey coastline and shut down New York City on Monday and Tuesday, leaving some 80 dead in the US; along the entire storm path from the Caribbean to Canada, at least 150 people were killed.
ABOUT 200 mostly armed protesters have occupied an area near Libya's parliament building, blocking nearby roads and beating up journalists in protest of the country's new cabinet.
Thursday's action, in which an AP reporter was also beaten, is the third in a row staged by the group, which opposes the new government chosen Prime Minister Ali Zidan and endorsed by Congress.
They say the 30-member cabinet includes former members of Muammar Gaddafi's deposed regime, and should undergo screening by a state body tasked with barring such people from government jobs.
The armed protests highlight the mounting challenges Libya faces a year after the fall of Gaddafi's dictatorship. The country is awash with weapons and armed groups.
THE Syrian military has agreed to halt military operations from Friday Morning for the Muslim holiday weekend but reserves the right to respond to rebel attacks, the army announced.
"Military operations will cease on Syrian territory as of Friday morning, until Monday the 29th," the army said in a statement read on state television.
"(The military) reserves the right to respond to continuing attacks on civilians and government forces by armed groups."
DANISH Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has warned she will veto the EU's 2014-2020 budget proposal if Denmark does not receive a one billion kroner ($A169 million) rebate.
"Our key message to the other countries and what we are fighting for, is that we have to have a discount, and that we do not wish to pay other rich countries' rebates," she told the Danish parliamentary committee on European affairs on Thursday.
Denmark currently has no rebate or discount on its contribution to the European Union's budget.
Thorning-Schmidt, a social democrat, made her announcement after British Prime Minister David Cameron last week threatened to use his veto if Brussels increased spending at a time when EU member states are adopting tough austerity measures at the national level.
The 27 EU leaders will hold an extraordinary summit on November 22 and 23 for what are expected to be very tough talks on the budget. European Union President Herman Van Rompuy has called for member states to show willingness to compromise on the budget.
In 2011, Denmark was still pushing for all budget contribution rebates to be abolished, and primarily Britain's, which is the largest and dates back to 1984.
But shortly thereafter Denmark's centre-right government then headed by Lars Loekke Rasmussen reversed its opinion after concluding the rebate system was to be a lasting feature.
"The Danish government changed its opinion, saying in effect: 'We are still against rebates, but as long as there are rebates in the EU system, we think it is reasonable that we get rebates because we resemble other countries in the EU receiving rebates'," a political science professor at the University of Copenhagen, Peter Nedergaard, told AFP.
"If (Denmark is) not receiving rebates, but should have received them, and other countries that resemble Denmark are receiving them, then Denmark ends up paying for other countries' rebates," he concluded.
Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria have all negotiated rebates because they felt they were contributing too much to the budget compared with other countries.
AN ENDANGERED orangutan on Borneo island has survived after being shot more than 100 times with an air rifle, Indonesian officials say.
The female ape, whom conservationists have named Aan, has gone blind in one eye and sustained serious wounds across her body after being repeatedly hit with pellets on the Indonesian part of the island.
Conservationists had feared the orangutan, found on an oil palm plantation with 37 pellets lodged in her head and 67 elsewhere in her body, would not survive but officials now believe she has cheated death.
"She is fighting hard. She was badly wounded, but she's starting to eat so we're hopeful," Hartono, head of the local government conservation agency said.
But he fears she may lose the sight in her remaining eye and her hearing could be affected.
"We may be able to release her, but we're worried about her chances of survival with no sight and poor hearing," said Mr Hartono, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.The agency said it did not know who shot the ape, which is now in a rehabilitation centre in the Borneo jungle. But the past year has seen several shootings of orangutans on plantations as a form of pest control.
Rangers from the agency rescued Aan on October 10 after she was spotted with serious injuries in Central Kalimantan province. They removed all 104 pellets from her body with the help of the UK-based Orangutan Foundation.
The foundation had feared she would die from infections caused by the serious wounds to her head, as well as near her heart, lungs and eyes.
Four men were sentenced to eight months' jail in April for shooting and beating to death three orangutans and long-nosed monkeys in East Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo.
In that case, employees at a Malaysian-owned palm oil company had paid them to drive the orangutans away. Borneo is shared between Indonesia and Malaysia.
Experts believe there are about 50,000 to 60,000 of the two species of orangutans left in the wild, 80 per cent of them in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.
They are faced with extinction from poaching and the rapid destruction of their forest habitat, mainly to create palm oil plantations.
MICROSOFT is kicking off a campaign for its newest operating system, Windows 8, at a five-hour event at New York's Pier 57.
Designed to run on both PCs and tablet computers, Windows 8 heralds the biggest change to the industry's dominant operating system in at least 17 years.
Windows 8 attempts to bridge the gap between personal computers and fast-growing tablets with its touch-enabled interface.
The launch event comes amid a slew of other tablet offerings ahead of the holidays. Apple unveiled its iPad Mini with a 7.9-inch screen on Tuesday. Amazon.com Inc. and Barnes & Noble, makers of the 7-inch Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, are coming out with larger versions next month.
The Windows event in New York also heralds the launch of the software company's Surface tablet, its first venture into making computer devices.
The device goes on sale today, as will computers and other tablets running Windows 8. Wedge Partners analyst Kirk Adams expects Microsoft to trail its rivals in fourth-quarter tablet sales.
One factor that might dampen enthusiasm for the Surface is its price - $US599 with its touch keyboard cover - and its availability for purchase only from a limited number of Microsoft stores and online, Mr Adams said. He said consumers may be reluctant to buy the device until they can try it in person.
Meanwhile, most analysts believe companies and governments will hold off on upgrading to Windows 8 for at least another year. About half of business users still haven't upgraded to Windows 7 from Windows XP, which came out in 2001.
XP also marked the last time Microsoft had a huge launch campaign for Windows. Microsoft also came to New York then, holding an event at a Times Square hotel. Releases of Windows Vista and 7 since then were more subdued.
Here's a running account of the Windows 8 event, presented in reverse chronological order. All times are EDT.
Presenters include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer; Windows chief Steven Sinofsky; Julie Larson-Green, the executive in charge of Windows Program Management; and Michael Angiulo, who heads the Windows Client and Ecosystem Team.
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11:45 a.m.
There have been few surprises, as Microsoft announced the release date and made preview versions available long ago. Microsoft's stock climbed 3 cents to $27.93 in midday trading. Trading volume was low, less than half of the average.
Microsoft announced the grand opening of its Windows online store, modeled after Apple's iTunes store. It will sell apps and content for Windows machines.
The store will be open in 231 markets around the world.
There are plenty of third-party apps available for iPads, iPhones and devices running Google's Android system. Sinofsky acknowledged that Microsoft's app store will likely be slim at first.
"We know some people might count apps and look for their favorite apps," he said. Hinting at more to come, he added, "We see today as a grand opening."
He said there are hundreds of apps added every day, in 109 languages. He said the Windows store has more apps than any other app store had at its opening.
