Heavily armed Islamists attack in Cairo

RESIDENTS of Cairo's Manial neighbourhood are recovering from a bloody night of clashes with armed supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood who killed at least seven people and left dozens injured, they've told AFP.

The violence erupted when residents tried to stop hundreds of Islamists passing through Manial to reach protests being staged in the iconic Tahrir Square against toppled president Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood.

"The Brotherhood attacked the area with all kinds of weapons," said resident Mohammed Yehya, who lost three of his friends in the mayhem.

Inhabitants of the Nile island of Manial reported seeing dozens of bearded Islamists armed with machineguns, machetes and sticks on Friday night before the deadly clashes broke out.

Snipers were spotted on rooftops, and medics told AFP they treated some residents of the normally quiet middle-class neighbourhood for bullet wounds with a downward trajectory.

Buildings were pockmarked with bullet holes. Rocks carpeted the floor and charred tyres showed the ferocity of the violence.

The clashes in Manial and elsewhere came two days after the army toppled Morsi, underlining the determination of his Muslim Brotherhood to disrupt the military's plan for a political transition until new elections.

Residents say the attack began just minutes afer the Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohammed Badie, gave a fiery speech to Morsi supporters camped out in Cairo's Nasr City, which was broadcast live on television.

"The attack came minutes after Badie's speech. They treated us like infidels. They were chanting 'Allahu akbar' (God is greatest) as they were shooting us," said Ahmed Fattouh.

On the door of one shop hung a sign announcing that the owner, 26-year-old Abdallah Sayyed Abdelazim, had been killed.

Parts of Manial were a ghost town on Saturday, with businesses shuttered and residents devastated by the night's violence.

"Their ammunition just didn't run out. They are trying to terrorise us and take over the country," said Khaled Tawfik.

Shopkeeper Mohammed Fekry, 29, who was wounded by birdshot said at least 10 people were killed and dozens injured.

"We have 10 people dead in this area, including six people who died with single bullets in the head. There were snipers on the roof of the Salaheddine mosque," Fekry said.

The overall toll for Friday's violence across Egypt was 30, but casualties are likely to rise.

Ihab al-Sayyed, a doctor at Qasr al-Aini hospital, told AFP that seven people he treated for injuries from the Manial clashes had died.

"I think the death toll will be much higher.

"The injuries were all from live bullets, most of them automatic weapons. Three of the dead and dozens of the injured were shot at from a height," the doctor said.

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Pakistan train accident kills 14: official

AT least 14 people, including two children, were killed when a train collided with a packed motorcycle rickshaw in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, officials say.

The passenger train travelling from the country's financial hub Karachi to Punjab capital Lahore on Saturday crushed the rickshaw on a road crossing which had no barrier.

"The accident occurred in Khanpur town of district Sheikhupura, around 40km northwest of Lahore," Salim Niazi, a local police official, told AFP.

Officials said at least two children were among the dead.

"Twelve people died on the spot. Four people with critical injuries were taken to hospital, of whom two expired," Muhammad Asim, a senior doctor at the local hospital, told AFP.

"Two of them were children under 12 years old," he said adding that many bodies were mutilated and unable to be identified.

Police said the rickshaw was over-capacity and drove onto the train track moments before the Lahore-bound train passed through, smashing into it.

"There was no gate at this crossing, (nor) a man to stop the traffic to clear a way for the train," said Niazi.

Pakistan has a poor railway system with a track dating back to British rule and old coaches. Many Pakistanis avoid travelling by train due to low safety standards and poor facilities.

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Iraq bombings kill five

A suicide attacker and a car bombing have killed at least 19 people in separate attacks in Iraq. Source: AAP

BOMBINGS north of Baghdad have killed five people, including a police officer, a day after attacks across the country left 23 dead.

A roadside bomb killed four people west of the northern city of Kirkuk, while another bomb in Tikrit, also north of the Iraqi capital, killed a police officer and wounded two others.

The attacks come a day after 23 people died in a string of attacks across the country, including the bombing of a Shi'ite religious hall.

Iraq is grappling with a protracted political standoff within its national unity government and months-long protests among its Sunni Arab minority.

Analysts and diplomats worry that the stand-off is unlikely to be resolved at least until general elections due next year.

With the latest violence, attacks have killed more than 160 people and wounded more than 400 in the first six days of July, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.

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Mandela reflects on his death in video

NEARLY 15 years ago Nelson Mandela was unperturbed by his own death, telling a dying teenager that he had lived his life to the full.

The video dating from 1998, broadcast by American news channel CBS on Thursday as Mandela remained in critically ill in hospital, showed the towering South African statesman visiting a 15-year-old, also named Nelson.

"Understanding the fact that I'm near the end, I remain optimistic with my morale very high, because I'm saying I have lived my life," the statesman, then 80, told the teen, who was dying of brain cancer.

In the amateur video the boy, his head shaved, smiled shyly from his bed at the peace icon, who wore one of his colourful trademark shirts.

Posters of cars adorned the wall next to where the then-president sat holding a teacup.

"If your spirit is not optimistic, your morale is not high, medicine is not very effective," the then president said.

The boy died under three months after the visit.

Broadcast as the 94-year-old nears one month in hospital, the words carry added poignancy.

According to court documents from Mandela family lawyers, filed nine days ago, doctors believed Mandela was in a "permanent vegetative state" and they advised his family to turn off his life support machine.

South Africa's presidency has since said his condition has improved and on Thursday denied he is in a vegetative state.

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Pope John XXIII to be made saint

POPE Francis gave the go-ahead on Friday for his late predecessor John Paul II to be made saint by the end of the year and granted a rare exception for John XXIII to be canonised at the same time.

The Vatican said Francis gave his widely expected formal approval to a second miracle attributed to John Paul II at a meeting with Cardinal Angelo Amato, head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Details of the supposed miracle have not been revealed.

In the case of John XXIII, however, Francis "approved the favourable votes" from the Congregation for the canonisation even though no second miracle has been found, in a break with the usual procedure.

A consistory, a meeting of cardinals, will now be held to determine the exact date for the canonisations but Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said they would take place "before the end of the year".

The long road to sainthood normally requires two "confirmed" miracles, the first of which is necessary for beatification, a hurdle the Polish pope cleared just six months after his death in 2005.

That was the healing of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, whose recovery from Parkinson's disease after praying for the late John Paul II's "intercession" apparently had no medical explanation.

John Paul II was hugely popular through his 27-year papacy, and at his funeral in 2005, crowds of mourners cried "Santo Subito!" -- which roughly translates as "Sainthood Now!"

Nicknamed "The Good Pope", John XXIII reigned from 1958 to 1963 and made his name by calling the historic Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) which overhauled and modernised the Catholic Church's rituals and doctrines.

He is often compared to Pope Francis for his pastoral attitude and charisma.

Asked about the exemption made by Francis, Lombardi said this was "a very specific case".

"Everyone knows the virtues and the personality of pope (Angelo) Roncalli, there is no reason to explain the reasons for his sanctity," he said.

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Egypt public prosecutor says he's quitting

EGYPT'S controversial public prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmud says he is to resign, days after being reinstated, citing possible conflicts of interest in future prosecutions.

A longtime prosecutor under former dictator Hosni Mubarak, Mahmud had been sacked by now deposed president Mohamed Morsi in November as part of a decree in which the Islamist head of state granted himself sweeping powers.

The decree was eventually repealed under intense pressure from street protests, but the decisions stemming from it were protected by the constitution that was passed in December.

Mahmud had filed a lawsuit against his sacking and the Court of Appeals ruled in his favour on Tuesday.

His sacking had intensified long-running tensions between the presidency and the judiciary, which accused Morsi of interfering in its independence.

In a statement carried by state news agency MENA and verified by his office, Mahmud said he had filed the lawsuit against Morsi's decision "not to return to my post... but to stress the independence of the judiciary".

He said he would now ask the Supreme Judicial Council to approve "my return to the judges ranks".

"I feel uneasiness over what will be required in the future in terms of measures and rulings involving those who removed me from office," Mahmud said.

The military ousted Morsi on Wednesday.

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Egypt seeks arrest of Brotherhood leaders

THE authorities in Egypt have issued an arrest warrant for the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme leader Mohammed Badie and his first deputy Khairat El-Shater, a judicial source says.

The two are wanted on charges of inciting the killing Sunday of protesters in front of the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters in Cairo's southern neighbourhood of Mokattam, the source tolD AFP on condition of anonymity.

The warrants come a day after the military toppled president Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood, following bloodshed and mass protests calling for his ouster.

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Female Afghan police officer shot dead

GUNMEN have shot dead one of the most high-profile female police officers in Afghanistan, underlining the threat to women who take on public roles in the country.

Lieutenant Islam Bibi was a well-known face of female advancement but admitted to receiving regular death threats from people who disapproved of her career - including from her own brother.

"She was shot by unknown assailants when she was being driven to work by her son in the morning," Helmand provincial government spokesman Omar Zwak told AFP.

"She was badly wounded and taken to hospital, and later died in emergency care. Her son was also injured."

Bibi, aged 37 and a mother of three, was seen as an example of how opportunities for women have improved in Afghanistan since the repressive Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

She was the most senior female officer serving in Helmand, a hotbed of the Islamist insurgency that was launched against the US-backed Kabul government after the fall of the Taliban.

"My brother, father and sisters were all against me. In fact my brother tried to kill me three times," Bibi told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper earlier this year.

"He came to see me brandishing his pistol trying to order me not to do it (serve in the police), though he didn't actually open fire. The government eventually had to take his pistol away."

Bibi, a former refugee in Iran, returned to Afghanistan in 2001 and joined the police force nine years ago, saying she signed up for the salary and for the love of her country.

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Man dead, two in hospital after Qld crash

THREE children have escaped serious injury from a two vehicle crash in central Queensland that left a man dead and two others in hospital.

The man died at the scene on Thursday night at Avondale, northwest of Bundaberg, where the three children were treated for minor injuries, police say.

A seriously injured man and a woman with non life-threatening injuries were taken to Bundaberg Base Hospital.

The forensic crash unit is investigating.

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Group finds carcinogen in Pepsi products

AN environmental group says that the caramel colouring used in Pepsi still contains a worrisome level of a carcinogen, even after the drink maker said it would change its formula.

In March, Pepsi and Coca-Cola both said they would adjust their formulas nationally after California passed a law mandating drinks containing a certain level of carcinogens come with a cancer warning label. The changes were made for drinks sold in California when the law passed.

The chemical is 4-methylimidazole, or 4-Mel, which can form during the cooking process and, as a result, may be found in trace amounts in many foods.

Watchdog group The Center for Environmental Health found via testing that while Coke products no longer test positive for the chemical, Pepsi products sold outside of California still do.

Pepsi said its caramel colouring suppliers are changing their manufacturing process to cut the amount of 4-Mel in its caramel. That process is complete in California and will be finished in February 2014 in the rest of the country. Pepsi said it will also be taken out globally, but did not indicate a timeline.

Meanwhile, the company said the FDA and other regulatory agencies around the world consider Pepsi's caramel colouring safe.

Coca-Cola said it has transitioned to using a modified caramel in US markets beyond California that does not contain Mel-4, so it wouldn't have to have separate inventory of products for different locations. It also said all of its products, whether they have the modified caramel or not, are safe.

Trace amounts of 4-Mel have not been linked to cancer in humans. The American Beverage Association said that California added the colouring to its list of carcinogens with no studies showing that it causes cancer in humans. It noted that the listing was based on a single study in lab mice and rats.

The Food and Drug Administration has also said that a consumer would have to drink more than 1,000 cans of soda a day to reach the doses administered that have shown links to cancer in rodents.

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