World's media sweat it out for royal baby

THE media frenzy over the birth of Prince William and his wife Catherine's baby has reached fever pitch as the reported due date came and went with no sign of the royal heir.

A rumour that the Duchess of Cambridge had gone into labour on Thursday spread like wildfire on Twitter and reportedly caused British Prime Minister David Cameron's office to call Buckingham Palace to check on it.

It was another false alarm, but the dozens of international journalists camped outside the private London hospital where Kate is giving birth are on tenterhooks, knowing that it could happen any day now.

The palace has said the baby was due in "mid-July" and many editors have had this weekend in the diary for weeks - even though any parent knows that babies rarely arrive on time.

William's father, Prince Charles, revealed that it is not just royal observers waiting for the baby, as they attended a festival celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's coronation on Friday.

Charles, the heir to the throne who will become a grandfather for the first time, said "it won't be long now" as he surveyed a range of commemorative china to mark the new arrival.

His second wife Camilla, who is already a grandmother, added in conversation: "We are very excited. Immensely looking forward to it and waiting for the phone call."

The popularity of William and Kate, who married in a glittering wedding at Westminster Abbey in 2011, has turned the birth of their first child into a global event.

Media organisations have been installed outside St Mary's Hospital in Paddington for almost two weeks now, and in the absence of news, time has been passing slowly.

For the television networks, the top priority is to hold their positions around the clock, working 12-hour shifts in baking summer heat.

That means fiercely defending their territory, never yielding an inch of space to a rival station, and woe betide anyone touching the gaffer tape marking out an organisation's patch.

The main British news broadcasters - BBC, ITN and Sky News - have got the prime spots, lined up in front of the major US networks, which have maximised their space with some mammoth pieces of broadcasting hardware.

Behind them, it is a scramble to get a decent angle to shoot the doorway where William himself first saw daylight in 1982, carried out of the Lindo Wing by his parents Prince Charles and Diana.

For the time being, the door is guarded by a police officer who is rapidly becoming the most filmed man on the planet.

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14 killed in traffic pile-up near Moscow

FOURTEEN people have been killed and 16 injured in a traffic accident outside Moscow involving a truck, a passenger bus and other vehicles, officials say.

Police said that according to initial information, the accident took place on Saturday when the truck which was carrying a cargo of gravel turned onto a main road and ploughed into the bus.

The interior ministry said that the 14 killed included a young child.

The bus, which was taking passengers on a regular public transport route from Podolsk to Zhokhovo in the Moscow region, was broken up into two parts by the force of the collision, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

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Apologies over plane crash gaffe

US officials have apologised for mistakenly confirming false and offensive names identifying the pilots of the Asiana flight that crashed in San Francisco, leaving three dead and scores injured.

Fox network affiliate KTVU news Channel 2 in Oakland identified the pilots in their noon broadcast on Friday as "Sum Ting Wong," "Wi Tu Lo," "Ho Lee Fuk," and "Bang Ding Ow."

KTVU cited the National Transportation Safety Board as their source, but quickly realised the mistake and apologised.

"These names were not accurate despite an NTSB official in Washington confirming them late this morning," KTVU said late on Friday.

The NTSB later apologised for the "inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed" as those of the Asiana pilots - and blamed the mistake on an intern.

"In response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft," the statement read.

The NTSB "does not release or confirm the names of crew members or people involved in transportation accidents to the media," the board said.

"Appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated."

The NTSB told the San Francisco Chronicle the offensive names "originated at the media outlet," and that the intern did not realise they were offensive and was "acting in good faith and trying to be helpful."

Three people died when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport on July 6 and more than 180 were injured.

In Seoul, Asiana Airlines earlier identified the pilot flying the Boeing 777 that crashed as Lee Kang-Kuk, 46.

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NSW teen catches fire, police hunt for ex

A HUNT is underway for a teenager whose ex-girlfriend was allegedly doused in accelerant as she stood near an open fire at a home south of Wollongong.

The woman, 19, caught alight and had to be airlifted to Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital where she remained in an induced coma on Friday night.

She was found severely burned at a home in Koona Avenue, Albion Park Rail, about midday (AEST) on Friday, police said.

Police established a crime scene and seized several items for forensic analysis.

Investigators have been told the woman had previously been in a relationship with a 17-year-old male, who is now wanted for questioning.

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Mandela's wife now 'less anxious'

South Africa has marked 50 years since the police raid that led to Nelson Mandela's life sentence. Source: AAP

GRACA Machel, the wife of ailing South African icon Nelson Mandela, says she is less anxious about his condition, five weeks after he was admitted to hospital.

"He continues to respond positively to treatment. I would say that today I'm less anxious than I was a week ago," she told state-backed SABC television.

It is the latest in a series of upbeat accounts, which seem to suggest that while the 94-year-old's condition remains "critical", it has improved somewhat.

After visiting Mandela late Thursday, President Jacob Zuma said he was "responding to treatment."

"He remains as much of a fighter now as he was 50 years ago," Zuma said, marking the anniversary of a police raid that led to Mandela's life sentence in prison.

Earlier in the week Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, who is one of Mandela's nephews and king of his Thembu tribe, said the former statesman was "conscious".

"He could not talk, but he recognised me and made a few gestures of acknowledgment, like moving his eyes."

Two weeks ago the prognosis appeared much bleaker, with family massing at his Pretoria hospital as Zuma abruptly cancelled a trip to Mozambique.

Doctors are said to have ruled out switching off Mandela's life support machines unless there is serious organ failure.

Court documents filed on behalf of the family last month described Mandela's condition as "perilous", with one claiming he was in a "vegetative state".

Mandela, who turns 95 next week, was rushed to a Pretoria hospital on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.

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Popular roving UK broadcaster Whicker dies

ALAN Whicker, one of the most widely-travelled and popular UK broadcasters of his generation, has died aged 87.

The presenter and reporter died in the early hours of Friday at his home in Jersey after suffering from bronchial pneumonia, his spokeswoman said.

For more than 40 years he roamed the world for the BBC and independent TV networks, seeking out the eccentric, the ludicrous and the socially revealing aspects of everyday life from all over the globe.

He was probably best known for Whicker's World, his long-running documentary program which he presented from 1959 to 1990.

And he acquired over the years an enviable reputation of having no equal as a television commentator.

Alan Donald Whicker was born in Cairo, Egypt, on August 2 1925, but moved to England as a young child on the death of his father.

He attended Haberdashers' Aske's School and was commissioned as an officer in the Devonshire Regiment during the Second World War, serving as a captain.

He then joined the Army Film and Photo Unit in Italy in 1943, filming at Anzio.

Whicker was also responsible for taking into custody British traitor John Amery, who was subsequently executed.

In a 2004 TV series, called Whicker's War, he disclosed that he was one of the first of the Allied forces to enter Milan and that he took into custody an SS general and troopers who were looking after the SS money vault.

He also shot footage of the body of Mussolini.

After the war he became a journalist and broadcaster, acting as a newspaper correspondent in the Korean War, during which he was mistakenly reported as having been killed.

He joined the BBC in 1957 and was a reporter for the famous Tonight program.

Soon after that he began his Whicker's World series, which over the years consistently claimed a place in the top 10 ratings.

He was also instrumental in the launch of Yorkshire Television.

Whicker was noted for probing the private worlds of the rich and famous on cruise ships, the Orient Express, at cocktail parties, on world tours, in health spas and gentlemen's clubs.

He lured countless individuals into allowing him a privileged glimpse of sometimes extraordinary lives.

Among his "victims" were John Paul Getty and Haiti's feared dictator "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

On one occasion, while in the US, he heard about an Alan Whicker impersonation contest. He entered and came third.

He was also the man behind the popular advertising slogan Hello World for Travelocity.

Whicker was awarded a CBE in the 2005 New Year Honours list for services to broadcasting.

He had lived in Jersey and is survived by his long-standing partner Valerie Kleeman.

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Global recovery to boost oil demand: IEA

GLOBAL economic recovery and emerging markets led by China will boost growth of oil demand to a record high total next year, the IEA forecasts.

Next year, consumption by emerging markets will dominate demand overall, a position "they should hold in perpetuity", the International Energy Agency said.

But the overall tone of the IEA monthly report stressed that the oil market is heading into a sea of "many uncertainties", partly because oil production in the United States is "set to grow strongly".

Supply from other countries outside the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), notably Brazil, Kazakhstan and South Sudan, would also rise, the agency forecast.

For this year, because unseasonally cold weather had caused a big increase in demand for heating oil in the northern hemisphere in the second quarter, the agency raised its estimate for global demand by 215,000 barrels per day (bd).

This took the overall estimated annual growth to 930,000 bd, and total consumption to 90.8 million barrels per day (mbd).

The IEA estimates show demand rising by a further 1.2 million bd next year to 92.0 million bd, a new record after record demand also this year.

In London, the price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil fell 24 US cents from the closing price on Wednesday to $US106.28, partly in response to the report but also due to comments on monetary policy from the US Federal Reserve, traders said.

Regarding supply, "upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa remains an overarching concern," the IEA warned.

"Emerging markets and developing economies are forecast to lead demand growth in 2014," the IEA said.

The growth of demand from countries outside the 34-member OECD had slowed "from the heady pace of recent years" but would "climb above total OECD demand in the second quarter of 2014," the agency said.

Against a background of the boom in production of shale oil in North America, the IEA said that the United States would play a role in "an expected steep increase in global refining activity in the third quarter of 2013".

Demand from countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development would shrink at a much slower pace than it had since the financial crisis began in 2008.

OECD demand would fall by 0.8 per cent this year and 0.4 per cent in 2014, on the basis that "OECD economies will on average return to growth in 2014".

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Ex-UK minister to be charged over expenses

Former UK MP Denis MacShane will be charged with false accounting over parliamentary expense claims. Source: AAP

BRITAIN'S former Europe minister Denis MacShane is to be charged with false accounting over his expenses claims in parliament, prosecutors say.

The Crown Prosecution Service said MacShane, 65, allegedly claimed STG12,900 ($A21,185) for research and translation services by a company that did not carry out the work.

MacShane, who resigned his seat in parliament in November, is to appear in a London court July 30 on a single charge of false accounting.

He had been a Labour Party MP since 1994 and was former premier Tony Blair's Europe minister from 2002 to 2005.

"Having thoroughly reviewed the evidence gathered by the police, I have decided there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to bring a criminal charge against Denis MacShane," Malcolm McHaffie, deputy head of the prosecution service's special crime division, said in a statement.

"This charge relates to fraudulent claims with a total value of 12,900 ... It is alleged that Denis MacShane claimed expenses for research and translation services carried out by a company that did not carry out that work."

Police began examining MacShane's expenses nearly three years ago before dropping the case.

But the investigation was reopened in the wake of a report in November by a parliamentary standards committee which found that he had faked receipts to receive thousands of pounds of public money.

The report included letters from the former Labour minister to the standards commissioner detailing his actions, which had not previously been seen by police.

MacShane stood down as the member of parliament for Rotherham in northern England after the committee recommended he be suspended from parliament's lower House of Commons for 12 months.

MacShane said in a statement: "I am disappointed at the CPS decision but as the matter is now in the hands of the court I will be making no further statement."

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China plans to further restrict car use

China will further restrict the sale of cars for private use in a bid to fight pollution. Source: AAP

CHINA is planning to up the number of cities that restrict vehicle purchases, in a bid to fight pollution and congestion.

Four cities including Beijing and Shanghai already curb the purchase of vehicles for private use, for example by restricting sales to 20,000 per year through a lottery system.

On Thursday, state media quoted the deputy secretary general of the government-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers as saying eight more cities are likely to announce similar policies.

The eight include port city Tianjin, near Beijing, metropolis Chongqing in the southwest and industrial powerhouse Shenzhen, not far from Hong Kong.

With more than 13 million cars sold in China last year, motor vehicles and their emissions have emerged as the chief culprit for air pollution in large cities.

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Ireland set to pass abortion law

IRISH MPs are set to introduce abortion in limited cases where the mother's life is at risk, when controversial new laws go to a final vote on Wednesday night.

The predominantly Catholic nation's abortion laws faced global scrutiny after the death of 31-year-old Indian woman Savita Halappanavar in a Galway hospital last October.

The bill follows a 2010 European Court of Human Rights ruling that found Ireland failed to implement properly the constitutional right to abortion where a woman's life is at risk.

Under a 1992 Supreme Court ruling, women in Ireland are legally entitled to an abortion if needed to save a mother's life - but legislation has never been passed to reflect this.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill allows for abortion in circumstances where doctors certify there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother.

The new bill also permits a termination when one obstetrician and two psychiatrists unanimously agree that an expectant mother is a suicide risk.

The "suicide clause" has caused consternation among some lawmakers who believe it will be abused and lead to more abortions in Ireland.

Four government deputies voted against the bill at an earlier stage and were expelled from the parliamentary party as Prime Minister and Fine Gael party leader Enda Kenny has not allowed a free vote on the matter.

A number of other lawmakers and possibly a member of Kenny's cabinet, Lucinda Creighton, junior minister with responsibility for European Affairs, are likely to vote against the bill.

Lawmakers will discuss the 165 amendments tabled in the past few days, but widespread changes as demanded by some are unlikely to be introduced.

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Royal Mail privatisation plans announced

Royal Mail will be sold by the British government through flotation on the London Stock Exchange. Source: AAP

UP to 150,000 Royal Mail staff are to be handed thousands of pounds in free shares as part of a privatisation, the British government says.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said 10 per cent of the new company would be gifted to employees under the STG3 billion ($A4.89 billion) sell-off, which will begin over the next year.

"These shares will be free to eligible employees, recognising that many of them would otherwise find them unaffordable," he told MPs in a statement on Wednesday.

Cable said the final proportion of Royal Mail to be sold would depend on market conditions, although it would be a majority stake.

The shares will be available to the general public as well as institutional investors under the terms of the initial public offering (IPO).

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, relaunched plans to part-privatise Royal Mail three years ago and after the proposal was ditched by the former Labour administration.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown's Labour government scrapped the sell-off plans in 2009 as Britain struggled with recession following the global financial crisis.

But Royal Mail recently announced that its profit after tax soared to STG566 million in 2012-13 compared with a net gain of STG149 million during its previous financial year. Revenue grew almost 6.0 per cent to STG9.27 billion.

Royal Mail continues to operate most British postal services even though its more than 350-year-long monopoly of the letter-delivery business ended in 2006 as new rules kicked in to allow rival operators to win a slice of the market.

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Astronomers spot monster star

ASTRONOMERS have reported their best observation yet of a massive star embryo growing within a dark cloud - the largest stellar "womb" ever spotted in our Milky Way galaxy.

The star, which could grow to 100 times the mass of our Sun and up to a million times brighter, was spotted by the most powerful radio telescope on Earth - the ALMA international astronomy facility located in Chile, according to a paper published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Astronomers hope its discovery, at a distance of some 11,000 light years from Earth, will shed light on how these exceptionally massive stars are formed, shrouded as they are in dust and mystery.

"Not only are these stars rare, but their births are extremely rapid and childhood short, so finding such a massive bject so early in its evolution in our Galaxy is a spectacular result," study co-author Gary Fuller of the University of Manchester said in a statement issued by the European Southern Observatory (ESO)

The most massive and brightest stars in the galaxy form within cool and dark cloud cores, hungrily feeding on material being dragged inwards by the embryo star's gravitational pull.

This specific star is located in the Spitzer Dark Cloud, whose core has a mass about 500 times that of the Sun.

"This object is expected to form a star that is up to 100 times more massive than the Sun. Only about one in ten thousand of all stars in the Milky Way reach that kind of mass," said study lead author Nicolas Peretto of Cardiff University.

"The remarkable observations from ALMA allowed us to get the first really in-depth look at what was going on within this cloud. We wanted to see how monster stars form and grow, and we certainly achieved our aim. One of the sources we have found is an absolute giant - the largest protostellar core ever spotted in the Milky Way!"

According to the ESO, there are two theories on the formation of massive stars, which have at least ten times the mass of our Sun.

The first theory suggests that parental dark clouds fragment, creating several small cores that collapse and form stars. The other sees the entire cloud collapse inwards, with material racing into its centre to feed the star or stars growing there.

The new results support the second theory, said the statement.

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Tigers 'keep Aceh men up tree for 3 days'

Five men have spent three days in a tree in Indonesia to escape from a group of tigers. Source: AAP

FIVE men have spent three days in a tree in Indonesia to escape from a group of tigers that had killed and eaten a sixth member of the group, press reports say.

The group, residents of Simpang Kiri in Aceh province, on the northern part of the island of Sumatra, on Thursday entered the densely forested Gunung Leuser National Park, where they were attacked by a group of tigers after they accidentally killed a tiger cub with a trap meant for deer.

A group of about 30 people on Saturday went to rescue the five men after they used their mobile phones to inform others of their predicament.

The rescuers managed to chase the four tigers away, local police chief Dicky Sondani told The Jakarta Globe.

The men who took refuge in the tree entered the park to collect aromatic wood, which is used in the preparation of perfumes, aromatic oils and incense and grows in the park jungle, which is inhabited by protected and threatened species such as tigers, elephants and orangutans.

"It's worse this time because there are tigers waiting for the villagers," Dicky said.

"People keep entering the jungle to look for alim wood because it's very expensive; up to 5 million rupiah ($A550) per kilogram. But, well, that's the risk; there are many tigers and elephants in Gunung Leuser's jungle."

Tiger attacks on Sumatra have risen due to the sharp increase in the number of palm oil and pulp plantations that reduce the natural habitat of the felines and push them into zones inhabited by people.

It is estimated that more than 100 Sumatran tigers live in the Gunung Leuser park.

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Suspended death sentence for ex-minister

China's former railways minister Liu Zhijun has been given a suspended death sentence. Source: AAP

CHINA'S former railways minister Liu Zhijun has been given a suspended death sentence for his role in a huge corruption scandal, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Liu, 60, was convicted of bribery and abuse of power by the No 2 Intermediate People's Court in Beijing. Under Chinese law suspended death sentences are normally commuted to life imprisonment.

The scandal surrounding Liu is reported to have involved as much as 800 million yuan ($A144 million)).

Liu was appointed to head the railways ministry in 2003 and sacked eight years later, said to have taken payouts while handing out contracts for the rapid expansion of China's flagship high-speed railway system.

According to the indictment, Liu took advantage of his position to help 11 people win promotions or contracts, and accepted 64.6 million yuan in bribes between 1986 and 2011, Xinhua reported previously.

He was responsible for "huge losses of public assets and of the interests of the state and people" it quoted the indictment as saying.

Under Chinese law the death penalty can be imposed for taking bribes exceeding 100,000 yuan.

China's rail system - which has cost hundreds of billions of dollars - has been one of its flagship development projects in recent years, and it now boasts the world's longest high-speed network.

But a high-speed crash in the eastern city of Wenzhou killed some 40 people in 2011, sparking a torrent of public criticism that authorities compromised safety in their rush to expand the network.

The country's new leaders President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have vowed to fight corruption, which the Communist Party has identified as a threat to its continued rule.

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Myanmar 'Godfather of Heroin' dies: report

A former drug kingpin, once dubbed the "godfather of heroin" has died in his home in Myanmar. Source: AAP

A FORMER drug kingpin and business tycoon that the US government once dubbed the "godfather of heroin" has died in his home in Myanmar (Burma).

A source close to the family says Lo Hsing Han died on Saturday in Yangon.

The man spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have authorisation to speak to the media.

Lo Hsing Han was believed to be in his mid-70s.

The cause of death was not immediately known.

Lo Hsing Han's involvement in the drug trade began more than four decades ago.

The US Department of Treasury, dubbing Lo Hsing Han the "godfather of heroin," put him on the financial sanctions list in 2008.

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Pupils' Weight Concerns Highlighted

CHILDREN as young as 10 are unhappy with their weight and believe they need to shed some pounds, research suggests.

It indicates that young people become increasingly concerned about their weight as they grow up, with nearly two-thirds of 14 and 15-year-old girls saying they would like to be slimmer.

The study also suggests young people are increasingly likely to skip breakfast or lunch as they get older.

The findings come from a report by the UK Schools Health Education Unit (SHEU) which questioned more than 93,600 young people, of which more than 68,000 were 10- to 15-year-olds, in 2012, on a variety of topics.

It found that nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of girls aged 14 and 15 say they would like to lose weight, along with more than half (54 per cent) of those aged 12 and 13.

And more than a third (37 per cent) of 10 and 11-year-old girls - those in the final year of primary school - say they would like to lose weight, the survey found.

It suggests that boys are less concerned about how much they weigh, with just under three in 10 (29 per cent) of those aged 14 and 15 saying they want to drop a few pounds and 14 per cent saying they would like to put some weight on.

Around one in six (17 per cent) 14 and 15-year-old girls, and more than one in 10 (11 per cent) boys of the same age did not eat breakfast, the survey found - around double the numbers of Year 6 pupils who skipped this meal.

Laura Sharp, a nutritionist for the Children's Food Trust, said: "These are very worrying findings - all pupils, whatever their age, need to start the day with breakfast if they're going to be able to focus in class, and research shows a clear link between eating breakfast and children's attainment at school.

"What's particularly worrying is that girls and boys are skipping meals at a time when their bodies are changing fast and they're particularly in need of good nourishment.

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Qatada denies Jordan terror charges

Islamist cleric Abu Qatada has pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges in Jordan. Source: AAP

ISLAMIST cleric Abu Qatada has pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges pressed by Jordanian military prosecutors just hours after his deportation from Britain, his lawyer says.

Britain's expulsion of the Palestinian-born preacher after a decade-long legal battle drew expressions of delight from Prime Minister David Cameron.

Abu Qatada, who had been in and out of British prisons since 2002 even though he was never convicted of any offence, had once been described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe.

"Abu Qatada pleaded not guilty," defence lawyer Taysir Diab told AFP after the closed-door hearing before a military tribunal on Sunday.

"I will appeal tomorrow (Monday) to the (state security) court to release him on bail," he added.

The cleric was taken to the courthouse near Marka military airfield in east Amman just hours after he was flown in from Britain.

"State security court prosecutors charged Abu Qatada with conspiracy to carry our terrorist acts," a judicial official told AFP.

"He was remanded in judicial custody for 15 days in the Muwaqqar prison," in eastern Jordan, he added.

Reporters were not allowed into the courtroom to hear the charges being read out despite a pledge by Information Minister Mohammad Momani of "transparency" in Jordan's handling of Abu Qatada's retrial.

Abu Qatada was condemned to death in absentia in 1999 for conspiracy to carry out terror attacks, including on the American school in Amman, but the sentence was immediately commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour.

In 2000, he was sentenced in his absence to 15 years for plotting to carry out terror attacks on tourists in Jordan during millennium celebrations.

Jordanian law gives him the right to a retrial with him present in the dock.

Cameron hailed the final removal of Abu Qatada from British soil after a legal battle that cost the taxpayer 1.7 million pounds ($A2.82 million).

"I was absolutely delighted. This is something this government said it would get done, and we have got it done," Cameron told reporters.

"It's an issue that, like the rest of the country, has made my blood boil."

Britain was finally able to expel the 53-year-old father-of-five to Jordan after the two governments last month ratified a Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, guaranteeing that evidence obtained by torture would not be used in his retrial.

The Jordanian information minister reiterated the undertaking on Sunday.

"His retrial will be conducted in line with international standards, protecting his rights and ensuring justice, fairness, credibility and transparency," Momani told the state-run Petra news agency.

A security official told AFP that after his arrival "a team of doctors including the state coroner examined the suspect and made sure there were no signs of torture."

London had been trying to deport Abu Qatada since 2005 but British and European courts had blocked his expulsion on the grounds that evidence might be used against him that had been obtained by torture.

But after years of legal battles his lawyers unexpectedly said in May that he would return once the fair trial treaty was ratified by the Jordanian parliament.

He was taken from prison in an armoured police van to a military airfield on the outskirts of London, from which he was flown out.

Abu Qatada's wife and five children are expected to remain in Britain, where he first sought asylum in 1993.

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Syrian city almost flattened: monitors

INTENSE fighting in the central Syrian city of Homs has left up to 70 per cent of a besieged rebel-held district damaged, destroyed or uninhabitable, a monitoring group says.

The estimate from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday came nine days into an all-out army assault on the rebel-held Khaldiyeh and Old City neighbourhoods, which have been under siege for more than a year.

On Sunday, regime forces subjected insurgent areas of the city to fierce shelling, said the Observatory.

"60 to 70 per cent of buildings in Khaldiyeh are either totally destroyed, partially destroyed, or unsuitable for habitation," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Homs is Syria's third-largest city, and tens of thousands of its residents have fled the fighting.

"Of all Syria's cities, Homs has suffered the highest levels of destruction ... Images of Homs make it look like a world war has hit the city. Much of it has been flattened," he added.

Amateur video posted online by activists on Sunday showed flames and thick black smoke rising from several empty burnt-out buildings already riddled with holes.

Some structures shown in the video are barely standing.

"Even if the regime takes the neighbourhoods back, there's barely a house left standing to return to," said Abdel Rahman.

"It would even be dangerous to return. People from Homs are constantly under regime surveillance wherever they are in Syria, because their city has served as a rebel bastion since early in the revolt."

On Sunday, government troops used mortars, rocket fire and heavy artillery to target rebel areas in the city, the Britain-based Observatory said.

On the edges of Khaldiyeh, fresh clashes broke out between rebels and troops and pro-regime militiamen, it added.

According to the United Nations, some 2500 to 4000 people are trapped in the besieged areas.

In Damascus, regime warplanes targeted Jubar in the east of the capital, while tanks hit Qaboon in the northeast, said the Observatory.

Several mortar rounds hit Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus, it added, as rebels and troops clashed nearby.

In northern Damascus, the army tried to storm Barzeh, where rebels are still holed up, the watchdog said.

Syria's 27-month war has killed more than 100,000 people, the Observatory estimates.

On Saturday alone, at least 69 people were killed nationwide, it said.

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