US considers broad gun sales restrictions

THE administration of President Barack Obama is considering a broad array of measures to curb the nation's gun violence, including more than just a reinstatement of a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, The Washington Post reports.

Citing multiple people involved in the administration's discussions, the newspaper said a working group led by Vice-President Joe Biden is seriously considering several measures: universal background checks for firearm buyers, tracking the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, strengthening mental health checks, and stiffening penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors.

To push these measures through Congress, the White House is developing strategies to work around the National Rifle Association, the report said.

According to the paper, they could include rallying support from Wal-Mart and other gun retailers as well as regular contact with advisers to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an outspoken gun-control advocate.

The proposals are a response to last month's tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, the site of one of the worst school shootings in US history.

On December 14, a disturbed local man, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, killed his mother in their Newtown home before embarking on a horrific shooting spree at a local elementary school.

He blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and shot dead 20 six- and seven-year-old children and six adults with a military-style assault rifle before taking his own life with a handgun as police closed in.

However, the NRA, the most powerful gun lobby in the United States, stands firm against any additional restraints on firearms and ammunition sales - despite a national outcry in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre.

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Assad speech 'beyond hypocritical': UK

BRITAIN has denounced President Bashar al-Assad's speech calling for a conference of national dialogue to end the Syrian conflict as "beyond hypocritical".

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad's first speech to the nation since June was full of "empty promises" and would "fool no one".

In an address to an ecstatic audience in a Damascus theatre on Sunday, Assad described the opposition as "slaves" of the West and outlined a reconciliation plan aimed at resolving a civil war, which according to the UN has claimed more than 60,000 lives.

He called for a conference of national dialogue to be followed by a referendum on a national charter and parliamentary elections.

Assad also called on foreign powers to end their support for rebels seeking to bring down his regime.

Hague took to Twitter to vent his anger about the speech, writing: "AssadSpeech beyond hypocritical. Deaths, violence and oppression engulfing Syria are his own making, empty promises of reform fool no one."

Prime Minister David Cameron earlier reiterated his calls for the Syrian leader to stand down.

"My message to Assad is go," he told BBC TV. "He has the most phenomenal amount of blood on his hands."

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Egypt cabinet reshuffle ahead of IMF talks

EGYPT'S President Mohamed Morsi has reshuffled his cabinet amid a serious economic crisis and ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund for a $US4.8 billion ($A4.6 billion) loan.

Ten new ministers have been sworn into office, including Finance Minister Al-Morsi al-Sayyed Hegazi, whose predecessor Mumtaz al-Said headed the IMF loan negotiations that stalled during a period of intense political unrest in December.

Hegazi, a specialist in Islamic finance, will report to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, who remains in his post.

The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Islamist Morsi emanates, had criticised Said as being too close to the army, which held power during the transitional period after the overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Mohammed Ibrahim, a former police general, replaced Ahmed Gamal al-Din as interior minister, and eight other portfolios all related to the economy changed hands.

The ministers for transport, electricity, domestic development, civil aviation, the environment, communications, supply and domestic trade and parliamentary affairs were all replaced on Sunday.

Morsi announced the reshuffle on December 26, after the ratification by popular vote of a controversial new constitution draft by an Islamist-dominated panel allied to the president.

He said he wanted a cabinet more suited to the economic crisis the country faces.

Egypt's loan request to the IMF, made in August last year, was suspended for a month on December 11, with Cairo saying the postponement was "because of the political situation in the country".

The IMF and Egyptian authorities had provisionally agreed on the 22-month loan - aimed at helping the government bridge financial shortfalls through fiscal 2013-2014 - on November 20.

A top IMF official will visit Egypt on Monday for talks that are likely to focus on the loan.

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Cameron says wants to be UK PM until 2020

DAVID Cameron says he wants to serve as British prime minister until at least 2020 to oversee a range of reforms including a renegotiation of Britain's relationship with Europe.

In a raft of interviews ahead of a mid-term review of the progress of his coalition government on Monday, Cameron also defended a largely unpopular decision to remove child benefit payments from higher earners.

Cameron told the Sunday Telegraph he intended to lead his Conservative Party to victory in the 2015 general election and then serve a full five-year term.

As Cameron rarely speaks about his planned departure date, it has prompted speculation that if re-elected he would stand down halfway through his mandate.

But when asked by the newspaper if he intended to stay on as prime minister until 2020, Cameron said: "I want to fight the next election, win the next election and serve - that is what I want to do."

Pressed on what he would say in a major speech on Britain's strained relationship with the European Union that he is due to give in mid-January, Cameron said his party would offer voters a "real choice" at the 2015 election.

He said any vote on Britain's relationship with the EU would happen in the five years after the election, but he refused to be drawn on whether a poll would include the question whether Britain should remain in the bloc.

"People should be in no doubt that the Conservatives will be offering at the next election a real choice and a real way giving consent to that choice," he said in an interview on BBC TV.

He stressed it was in Britain's economic interest to remain a full member of the EU to enable the country to influence the direction of the single market.

"If we were outside the EU altogether, we'd still be trading with all these EU countries, but we'd have no say over the rules of the market into which we sell," Cameron said.

He said that because the countries using the euro were forced to make changes to their relationship to bolster the currency, Britain was "perfectly entitled" to ask for changes to the conditions of its membership.

On the domestic front, Cameron insisted there would be no U-turn to a move due to kick in on Monday to remove child welfare payments from families in which one parent earns more than STG60,000 ($A93,000).

"This will raise STG2 billion a year. If we don't raise that STG2 billion from that group of people - the better-off 15 per cent in the country - we would have to find someone else to take it from."

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Syrian opposition rejects Assad plan

THE opposition Syrian National Coalition rejects a reconciliation plan outlined by President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, spokesman Walid al-Bunni has told AFP by phone.

"We said at the founding of the National Coalition that we want a political solution, but ... there are now over 60,000 martyrs. The Syrians did not make all those sacrifices in order to bolster this tyrannical regime," he said.

Bunni said Sunday's speech was directed primarily at the "international community, which engaged in a real effort to create a political solution that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people and ends the tyranny of the Assad family regime".

Assad will not accept "any initiative that does not restore stability to his regime and put him at the helm of control", Bunni said.

The president, he added, has "excluded the possibility of any dialogue with the rebels".

"He wants negotiating partners of his own choosing and will not accept any initiative that could meet the aspirations of the Syrian people or ultimately lead to his departure and the dismantling of his regime."

Assad's call to dialogue "excludes those who revolt" and is addressed to "those who did not rise up or who will gladly accept the return of stability despite all the sacrifices made by the Syrian people", Bunni said.

Assad in his speech denounced the opposition as "slaves" of the West and called for national dialogue to draft a new charter and pave the way for legislative polls.

He said the conflict was not one between the government and the opposition but between the "nation and its enemies".

"Just because we have not found a partner, it does not mean we are not interested in a political solution, but that we did not find a partner," he told the audience.

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Doctors say Mandela has 'recovered'

NELSON Mandela has "recovered" from recent surgery and a lung infection for which the 94-year-old spent nearly three weeks in hospital, the South African presidency says, citing his doctors.

He "has recovered from his surgical procedure and the lung infection, his doctors said today", a statement from President Jacob Zuma's office said on Sunday.

"The medical (examination) said president Mandela has made steady progress and that clinically, he continues to improve," it said.

"He had undergone an operation to remove gallstones last month and was also troubled by a recurring lung infection. He continues to receive high care at his Houghton (Johannesburg) home and his daily routine is being gradually re-established."

On Thursday, Mandela's grandson, Mandla Mandela, told AFP the former South African president "is healed and is stronger than before".

The revered former statesman was flown to a Pretoria hospital on December 8 from his childhood home in Qunu.

Mandela was discharged from hospital more than a week ago after his longest stay in hospital since being released from prison in 1990.

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More hot, dry weather for Tassie

AUTHORITIES are warning more hot weather in Tasmania could rekindle the danger level of bushfires that have ravaged the southeast of the state.

The island state won't see a repeat of the record temperatures of last Friday when fires on the Tasman Peninsula, in the Derwent Valley and on the east coast claimed more than 100 properties.

But above average temperatures are expected with Hobart forecast to reach 29C on Monday and Launceston 30.

Temperatures will stay high until Wednesday and are also expected to be above average again in the days following.

"While we hopefully will not experience those once-in-a-generation, horrific, catastrophic weather conditions that we faced on Friday, there isn't a decent rain ahead of us," emergency services minister David O'Byrne said.

"There are still some weather conditions later this week where the temperatures will rise again ... which will mean not only the existing fires but other bushfire prone areas of Tasmania will be under threat."

Fire chiefs say they can't predict when the massive blazes in the state will be brought under control.

Meanwhile, police will continue their property-by-property search for bodies on Monday.

Acting Commissioner Scott Tilyard says around 100 people are unaccounted for but many may have failed to register with authorities.

Around 400 more evacuees were due to be ferried by boat from the Tasman Peninsula on Sunday night, while police were investigating whether it was safe to escort cars out on the closed Arthur Highway.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will visit the state on Monday.

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Myanmar rebels say troops attack HQ

ETHNIC Kachin rebels in Myanmar (Burma) have accused government troops of launching two artillery attacks against the city that serves as their headquarters, but there have been no casualties or significant damage.

Army forces based at a nearby outpost fired at least seven 105mm shells at the northern city of Laiza, four rounds on Sunday morning and three more before dusk, rebel spokesman La Nan told The Associated Press.

A senior government official denied the accusation.

Fighting has wracked northern Myanmar since a ceasefire that held for nearly two decades broke down in June 2011 after rebels refused to abandon a strategic base near a hydropower plant that is a joint venture with a Chinese company.

The conflict has forced around 100,000 Kachin from their homes since then, and many are in camps near Laiza, which is held by the rebels and located near the Chinese border.

Fighting between the two sides appears to have intensified in recent weeks, with the government pounding rebel positions with helicopter gunships and fighter jets.

La Nan, a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Army, said it was the second artillery attack on Laiza since December 19.

Another rebel official, who declined to be identified because he is not a spokesman for the insurgents, said the shells fired on Sunday morning fell near several homes that were hit by shrapnel but not significantly damaged. Rebel forces did not return fire, he said.

Tension with ethnic minorities fighting for greater autonomy in Myanmar is considered one of the biggest major long-term challenges for reformist President Thein Sein, who inherited power in 2011 from the army, which ruled for almost half a century.

The Kachin, like Myanmar's other ethnic minorities, have long sought greater autonomy from the central government. They are the only major ethnic rebel group that has not reached a truce with Thein Sein's administration.

The recent fighting in Kachin state escalated on Christmas Day, when the rebels rejected a government demand that supply convoys be allowed to reach an army base, contending they carried ammunition that could be used to attack their nearby headquarters. The government then used fighter planes and helicopters to mount attacks and seized one of the guerrillas' hilltop outposts.

The skirmishes have raised fears among rebels and their supporters that the army is readying to launch an offensive on Laiza, but as recently as New Year's Eve, a presidential adviser said the military had given assurances it would not do so. The army says it has launched recent air attacks to clear a road of rebels so it could supply a base.

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