China one-child policy change approved

Chinese state media says the National People's Congress has approved to change its one-child policy. Source: AAP

CHINA'S top legislature has sanctioned the ruling Communist Party's decision to allow couples to have a second child if one parent is an only child.

It's the first major easing in three decades of the restrictive national birth planning policy.

Implemented around 1980, China's birth policy has limited most couples to only one child, but has allowed a second child if neither parent has siblings or if the first born to a rural couple is a girl.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the standing committee of the National People's Congress approved a resolution on Saturday to formalise the party decision.

It says the national lawmaking body has delegated the power to provincial people's congresses and their standing committees to implement the new policy.

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Death toll in Beirut blast rises to 7

LEBANON'S state news agency says a 19-year-old man wounded in the car bombing in central Beirut has died, raising the death toll in the attack to seven.

The National News Agency says Mohammed Shaar died on Saturday from massive wounds sustained in the Friday blast, which targeted prominent Lebanese politician Mohammed Chatah.

The 62-year-old Chatah, who was a critic of Syria and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, also was killed in the explosion.

Officials say Chatah is to be buried at noon on Sunday in the towering Mohammed Al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut.

The Lebanese government has declared Sunday a day of mourning.

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Cambodian garment workers block traffic

STRIKING workers making shoes and clothes for Western brands have blocked roads and briefly scuffled with police in Cambodia.

The workers are demanding a two-fold increase in the minimum wage to $A180.

The protests on Friday snarled traffic in and around the capital Phnom Penh.

Human rights activist Om Sam Ath said protesters blocking a highway leading to Sihanoukville throw stones at police, who fired into the air.

He said four workers were injured, but it was unclear how serious the injuries were.

Most of the country's 500 factories have been closed since Thursday, when the manufacturers association urged its members to cease operations, citing the fear of violence.

The garment industry employs more than 500,000 people and is Cambodia's biggest export earner.

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Holiday road toll rises to 13

The Christmas holiday road toll has risen to 12 following the death of a teenager and a cyclist. Source: AAP

THE Christmas holiday road death toll has risen to 13, with the latest victims including a teenage driver and a cyclist killed in an apparent hit-and-run accident.

An 18-year-old woman died on Friday after the ute she was driving rolled near Narrabri in northwest NSW.

Earlier, a female cyclist was killed in an alleged hit-and-run near Adelaide.

Police allege a 37-year-old woman hit the cyclist at Lower Inman Valley and drove off.

About an hour later, a police patrol on the Southern Expressway at Lonsdale spotted two people in a car with front-end damage and a cracked windscreen.

Both occupants were arrested and the female driver was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and leaving the scene of an accident.

About noon on Friday a 25-year-old truck driver died when his vehicle left the North South Road at Apple Tree Creek in Queensland and rolled.

Police believe he was not wearing a seatbelt.

Another motorist in southeast Queensland died on Friday afternoon after a crash involving a truck on the Mount Lindesay Highway.

The national road toll period runs from midnight on December 23, 2013, until midnight on January 3, 2014, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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Five die in Beirut bombing

A POWERFUL bombing has rocked a central business district of central Beirut setting cars ablaze and killing five people, including a senior aide to former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, officials said.

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Four generations at royal church service

PRINCE George is nowhere to be seen as four generations of the British royal family attend their traditional Christmas Day church service at Sandringham on the Norfolk estate.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge looked relaxed as they walked St Mary Magdalene Church, holding hands as temperatures stayed just above freezing.

One member of the crowd shouted: "Where's the baby?"

Wearing a tartan Alexander McQueen coat and hat by Gina Foster, Kate smiled and waved to the crowds.

She was seen curtseying to the Queen, who was wearing an orange coat, as the family attended a private service earlier in the morning.

Prince Harry, still sporting a beard from his exertions in the Arctic with the charity Walking With the Wounded, attended alone despite rumours that girlfriend Cressida Bonas might join him.

About 3000 well-wishers gathered outside the church to watch them arrive.

Before the service a pilot entertained them by drawing a smiley face, heart and kiss in vapour trails in the sky.

The service opened with a rendition of Christians, Awake followed by Once In Royal David's City.

Last year the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge missed the service, choosing to spend Christmas Day with Kate's family in Berkshire, while Prince Harry was on tour in Afghanistan.

There had been unconfirmed reports that George's grandparents Michael and Carole Middleton would attend this year. There was no sign of them but it is thought they may arrive at the estate on Boxing Day.

The royal habit of spending Christmas at Sandringham is believed to date to Queen Victoria's reign.

The family traditionally open their presents on Christmas Eve and will enjoy a Norfolk turkey with all the trimmings after the service.

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Flood worries as WA cyclone threat eases

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a flood-watch warning for the north Kimberley region. Source: AAP

A DAMAGING tropical low is expected to bare down on Western Australia on Christmas night but cyclone fears are declining.

And strong winds are forecast for the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

The Bureau of Meteorology says a tropical low in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, to the north of Wyndham, is expected to cross the Kimberley coast on Wednesday night.

The weather system could bring heavy rainfall, flash flooding and thunderstorms with winds up to 100 km/h.

While the weather bureau says the weather is typical for this time of year, the winds could damage property and make road conditions hazardous.

A flood-watch warning is still in place for the North Kimberley.

The bureau cancelled a earlier cyclone warning for the Mitchell Plateau to the Northern Territory border

The low is no longer expected to become a tropical cyclone.

However, heavy rainfall is still forecast over the north Kimberley for the next few days, with falls up to 125 millimetres forecast from Kalumburu to Kununurra expected in the coming 24 hours.

Further east, strong winds are expected to lash the southern NSW coast during the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, which starts on Thursday.

Gale force winds are forecast for the Illawarra coast on Boxing Day and a strong-wind warning has been issued for the Hunter Coast and Sydney Coastal area.

The weather bureau forecasts 15 to 25 knot winds increasing to 35 knots offshore on Thursday for the Illawarra coast.

The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race starts from Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day and follows a 628 nautical mile course out into the Tasman Sea.

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Pope prays for South Sudan, Syria

POPE Francis has called for humanitarian aid access in Syria and "social harmony" in South Sudan on his first Christmas in the Vatican after months of shaking up the papacy with his humble style and common touch.

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Belfast peace talks fail to reach deal

OVERNIGHT talks in Belfast have failed to resolve deep-seated divisions over parades and flags that have triggered widespread rioting in Northern Ireland.

Richard Haass, director of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, led the multiparty talks.

The hope was that he could forge a compromise plan by the end of the year on areas of bitter dispute: parades, British and Irish flags and emblems, and remembering the dead from Northern Ireland's four-decade conflict.

Talks ended around 4am on Tuesday without agreement.

Haass insisted the process was "still alive" and said he might return to Belfast before the end of the year.

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Qld crash takes Xmas road toll to 4

A 69-YEAR-OLD man who was killed when his car crashed into a tree northwest of Bundaberg has become the first fatality on Queensland roads in the Christmas holiday period.

His death near Avondale at around 12.30pm (AEST) on Tuesday takes the national road toll for the holiday period to four.

Police said a member of the public reported the crash and the driver and sole occupant, believed to be a local man, died at the scene.

The death follows that of a man in northern NSW who was killed when the car he was in also hit a tree and split in two during a police pursuit.

A second man in the Holden sedan was critically injured in the high speed crash about 4km north of Moree at about 11pm (AEDT) on Monday.

Police said officers were attempting to catch up with the car after it passed a stationary RBT site on the Carnarvon Highway.

The death was the first in NSW for the holiday period and followed the deaths of two women in a two-car collision on the Calder Highway near Ouyen in Victoria's northwest at about 1pm on Monday.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2013 until 2359 January 3, 2014, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

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Australian journalist accused by Thai navy

A VETERAN Australian journalist is facing up to five years in a Thai jail in what human rights activists claim is an attempt to curtail press freedom.

Alan Morison, editor of news website Phuketwan, has told AAP that he and fellow journalist Chutima Sidasathian were confronted with defamation allegations by Thai police last week.

Mr Morison says the charge came five months after his site published excerpts from a news agency report that alleged Thai authorities were trafficking captured Rohingya asylum seekers from Myanmar (Burma).

"We were shocked and surprised when we were sued by the Royal Thai Navy, especially given that all we did was carry a paragraph from Reuters," Mr Morison told AAP from his home on Phuket on Monday night.

Mr Morison said the pair were also accused of breaching Thailand's Computer Crimes Act and if convicted face maximum jail terms of five and two years or a fine of up to 100,000 baht (AU$3400) or both.

The journalists were originally due to appear in court on Christmas Eve and Mr Morison feared he would await trial behind bars.

The pair have now been told to report back to police on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed Canberra was aware of the case.

"Embassy officials in Bangkok are providing consular assistance to an Australian man who has been called to give a statement before police on 24 December," she told AAP.

Human Rights Watch has attacked the legal action, calling it an attempt to stifle reporting.

"The Thai navy's lawsuit is a reckless attempt to curtail journalists reporting on alleged human trafficking by its officers," the group's Asia director Brad Adams said in a statement.

But Mr Morison said he believed the suit may stem from a simple mistranslation of his website's English-language article into Thai.

And the incident won't send him packing.

"I've been here for 10 years," he said.

"Phuket is a paradise for tourists and it's even more of a paradise for journalists."

The Royal Thai Navy could not be reached for comment.

A response has been sought from Reuters.

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WA police crack down on demerit scam

AT least 60 West Australian drivers suspected of rorting the demerit point system by claiming someone else was driving their car when they broke a traffic law will be charged.

An audit of traffic infringements over the 12 months to November found 360 potential cases of drivers falsely declaring that another person was driving their vehicle at the time of an infringement.

Only 60 cases have clear photographic evidence to charge people, but further reviews could identify more cases for prosecution, WA police said.

The review was ordered after a driver was accused of advertising on the Gumtree website for strangers to be paid to take his demerit points for speeding.

Drivers who accrue 12 demerit points are banned from driving for three months and points can accrue over three years.

Registered vehicle owners can nominate another person as being the driver at the time of an infringement, with demerit points transferred to that person.

Commander Alf Fordham said that police would continue cracking down on the demerit points scam.

"We now have processes in place to ensure we catch people engaging in this practice and we will get you, both as the driver and the person incorrectly accepting the points," he said.

The infringement management office had now developed criteria that would trigger an investigation into a renomination, he said.

Falsely nominating another driver can lead to charges of wilfully misleading police, which can incur a $1600 fine, or false statutory declarations that can result in two years' imprisonment and a fine up to $24,000.

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