Topless feminists in Vatican gay protest

FOUR activists from Ukrainian feminist group Femen have stripped off in St Peter's Square in a protest for gay rights just as Pope Benedict XVI was reciting his traditional weekly Angelus prayer.

The four topless women had "Shut Up!" scrawled on their fronts and "In Gay We Trust" on their backs.

"Homophobe shut up!" the activists shouted as the Pope was speaking on Sunday.

Several Italian and Vatican police officers quickly descended on the scene and detained the activists.

They staged their brief protest by the giant Christmas tree in the centre of the square to the dismay and curiosity of a crowd of pilgrims who had come out to see the Pope on a rainy winter day.

Tens of thousands were set to march in France later on Sunday to denounce government plans to legalise gay marriage and adoption, which have angered many Catholics and Muslims, France's two main faiths.

A small protest against the plans was also due to be held in Rome outside the French embassy.

The Femen women's power group has been making headlines since 2010 for topless feminist, pro-democracy and anti-corruption protests in Russia, Ukraine and Britain.

In September, they set up their first ever "training centre" in Paris.

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Man hospitalised after shooting

A MAN is in hospital after he was shot in the stomach and chest in Sydney's west.

Police were called to Ismay Avenue, Homebush about 11pm on Sunday following reports of a shooting.

On arrival, they found a man with gunshot wounds to his stomach and chest.

He was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he is receiving treatment.

His current condition is not known.

Police are investigating and have urged anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Victorian firefighter dies in Tasmania

A 60-YEAR-OLD Victorian firefighter has been found dead near a hamlet on the Tasman Peninsula where he was conducting a backburn.

Police say the body of the man, part of a Victorian contingent assisting the Tasmania Fire Service, was found near Taranna.

He was preparing for backburning operations at Waterfall Bluff, which is about two to three kilometres from the active fire edge.

Workers were sent to the area after the man failed to make a scheduled call-in.

Police say there appears to be no suspicious circumstances at this stage.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) said the dead man was from Gippsland.

A DSE statement from its secretary Greg Wilson and chief fire officer Alan Goodwin said the firefighter's family had been notified and no further personal details were available at this time.

They had offered their sincere condolences to the family and support had been offered.

DSE representatives have been sent to Tasmania to support crew members still on the ground.

Police are investigating the death and will prepare a report for the coroner.

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Steam train chugs through London's Tube

TOURISTS waiting for their train to Madame Tussauds in London have been treated to an unusual sight: a 19th century steam engine chugging down the tracks.

Officials sent the Met Locomotive 1, built in 1898, down London's Metropolitan Line to mark the 150th anniversary of the Tube network, the world's oldest.

Hundreds of train fans, costume-wearing enthusiasts and curious onlookers gathered at platforms and bridges across the city to watch as the locomotive travelled non-stop from Kensington Olympia station in the west to Moorgate station in central London.

London Mayor Boris Johnson was among the invited passengers aboard the historic black-and-red locomotive. He said the trip was "romantic", describing "thick clouds of white steam going past and then bits of soot coming through from the engine".

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Beijing choked by third day of smog

BEIJING has endured a third day of pollution at hazardous levels, as authorities warned a thick cloud of smog may not lift from the Chinese capital until the middle of the week.

While those venturing outside wore face masks, dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei went one step further, posting pictures of himself on Twitter in a gas mask.

As the dense smog shrouded large swathes of northern China, flights were cancelled and traffic delayed as visibility was reduced to 100 metres in some areas.

The dangerously poor air quality was highlighted by a steady stream of news broadcasts on state television, many of which warned residents against venturing outside.

The pollution also provoked China's huge number of microbloggers to take to the internet, with some high-profile web users calling for a re-evaluation of China's rampant modernisation.

Rapid economic growth has led to a dramatic increase in the consumption of coal and clogged city streets with cars.

"The foreign media is laughing at us. I agree with their laughter," said Hu Xijin, the editor of the state-run Global Times newspaper on Weibo, China's version of Twitter.

"This is a warning to the Government and Beijing's citizens. We have to think about what kind of modernisation we want and how to manage it."

Hu said the pollution issue would be on the front page of his newspaper on Monday.

Beijing-based Ai, 55, an outspoken critic of China's communist government, posted three pictures of himself on Twitter standing against a white background wearing a gas mask, his beard frizzing out beneath. But he did not make any verbal comment.

Beijing's municipal environment warning centre issued its second alert in two days, warning people to avoid outdoor physical activity.

The centre also urged government officials to set an example to other residents, by not using their cars.

Air quality in Beijing showed small airborne particles with a diameter small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs at a reading as high as 993 micrograms per cubic metre on Saturday evening, the warning centre said.

The World Health Organisation says the figure for such particles, known as PM2.5, should ideally be no more than 25 micrograms per cubic metre.

High levels have been linked to health problems including respiratory disease, heart disease and lung cancer.

Official PM2.5 figures have only been monitored in China's major cities since the beginning of last year.

The lack of official data makes it difficult to compare the recent smog with previous cases of pollution, said Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.

"But it is interesting to see that residents have been warned about the dangers of pollution by official media," Ma told AFP.

"This has never happened before, and is a result of the transparency that we now have with the figures."

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French strike Islamist bases in Mali

THE French air force has struck the northern Malian city of Gao, which had been controlled by the al-Qaeda offshoot MUJAO, destroying Islamist bases and forcing the insurgents to flee, residents say.

"There were dozens of strikes in and around Gao. All Islamist bases have been destroyed," a resident told AFP by phone.

Another witness said all Islamist fighters had been forced to flee by the air strikes.

Meanwhile witnesses said French fighter jets also struck a camp used by Islamist militants in Lere, about 150 kilometres north of Konna, a key central town that government troops recaptured with French aerial backing on Friday.

"The Lere camp, which was abandoned by the Malian army and had been used by the Islamists, was completely razed by air raids," a local official said, speaking from Mauritania where he took refuge.

Several other refugees said French air raids also struck weapons and ammunition depots used by Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith), a group whose leaders are connected to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

France has said its intervention was to stop a southward advance by Islamist insurgents that threatened the capital Bamako.

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Depardieu slams Russia protest movement

FRENCH actor turned Russian national Gerard Depardieu has accused President Vladimir Putin's opposition of lacking vision and defended the Kremlin's treatment of the Pussy Riot protest punks.

Depardieu received a Russian passport at a January 6 dinner with Putin that followed a bitter and very public fight with the French authorities over a disputed new tax on the super-rich.

The screen star has denied seeking to profit from Russia's flat 13 per cent tax on incomes and has never specified whether he intends to live in Russia long term.

But he has been feted as a hero by Russian state media for offering the Kremlin a chance to highlight the benefits of its policies in the face of broad criticism of Putin abroad.

Both Putin and Depardieu refer to each other as friends and the French actor offered a severe criticism of those who oppose the Russian leader's 13-year rule.

"The Russian opposition has no program - it has nothing," he told Rossiya state television's weekly analytical program in comments carried by local news agencies.

"Unfortunately, the masses are stupid. Only the individual is beautiful," Depardieu was quoted as saying in remarks translated to Russian from French.

Russia's first mass post-Soviet rallies emerged a year ago in response to a fraud-riddled December parliamentary poll in which the ruling party barely hung on to power.

The opposition held a series of subsequent protests that reached up to 120,000 people at their height.

But Putin's thumping presidential return in May cast a pall over the movement and just over 20,000 turned out for a march held on Sunday in protest against a new law banning adoptions by American families.

Depardieu said the opposition had "very smart people" such as former chess champion Garry Kasparov in its ranks.

"But that is good for chess and not much else," said the star of films such as Cyrano de Bergerac and the Asterix & Obelix series.

He also heavily criticised the anti-Putin protest stunt that the Pussy Riot all-female punk band performed last year in Russia's main cathedral.

Two band members are serving two-year sentences in Russia's notorious manual labour camps.

Depardieu almost directly repeated Putin's argument that the band members would have been treated much more severely had they gone to an Arab country and performed in a mosque.

"Imagine if these ladies walked into a mosque; they would not come out alive," said the actor.

"But when I say such things in France, I am considered an idiot."

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France on alert over Mali backlash fears

FRANCE is in a state of high alert with military action against Islamic radicals in Mali and Somalia triggering fears of a backlash on home soil.

Armed troops patrolled rail and subway stations in Paris and security around airports and public buildings was stepped up as Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian admitted the authorities were monitoring suspected Islamic militants based in France.

"The terrorist danger is permanent, it is not a new thing," Le Drian said on Sunday. "But we have to be very careful and take every precaution necessary in what is a very sensitive situation."

Le Drian acknowledged there were Islamic radicals based in France who are thought capable of becoming involved in terrorist actions, but he stressed that these individuals were subject to tight surveillance.

The existence of a home-grown Islamist threat in France became clear last year when Mohamed Merah went on a shooting spree in and around the southern city of Toulouse, killing three French paratroopers, a Rabbi and three Jewish schoolchildren before being killed himself in a police siege.

The Merah killings were followed by the dismantling, in October, of a suspected Islamist "terrorist cell" that prosecutors described as the most serious internal threat the country has faced since the Algerian-based GIA carried out a string of deadly bombings in the 1990s.

It was a splinter group of the GIA that evolved into what is now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the main organisation pulling the strings in northern Mali.

The increased security came as French warplanes bombarded Islamists in central Mali for a third day and in the aftermath of a botched commando raid in Somalia to free a French intelligence agent held there since 2009.

One French soldier died in the operation, another is missing presumed dead and the Paris authorities have also said they believe the hostage has been killed.

At least 17 Islamist guerillas were killed in the operation, according to French sources, and witnesses said at least eight civilians were caught in the crossfire.

In Mali, the army claimed that up to 100 Islamist fighters were killed during the liberation of the central town of Konna on Friday.

Ansar Dine, one of the Islamist groups which controls the north of Mali, and al-Shabab, al-Qaeda's local franchise in Somalia, have both warned that France will face retaliation over these deaths.

"In the end, it will be the French citizens who will inevitably taste the bitter consequences of their government's devil-may-care attitude towards hostages," al-Shabab said in a statement.

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