Pope takes to Twitter

POPE Benedict XVI will join Twitter from December 12, with regular tweets in eight languages from the account @pontifex in time for Christmas as the Vatican tries to woo the global internet generation.

"The first tweets will be answers to questions sent to the pope on matters of faith. The public can start sending them starting now," Vatican communications adviser Greg Burke said at a press conference on Monday.

The account carries a picture of the pope waving and its number of followers rose from around 2,400 at the time of the announcement to more than 24,000 just an hour later, with numbers continuing to rise sharply.

An introductory message of the account based in "Vatican City" read: "Welcome to the official Twitter page of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI."

"Pontifex" is a Latin word meaning "pontiff", the pope's official title.

Benedict will only follow his own account in other languages for the moment and there are no plans for a Facebook account yet, Burke said, adding: "Twitter can be more effective than Facebook in passing on the Pope's message."

The tweets will be in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish and more languages could be added in future.

Several fake Twitter accounts already set up in the pope's name have been used to mock the 85-year-old pontiff, but the Vatican said it was not worried about the risk that hostile messages would be tweeted on the real account.

Burke, a former correspondent for US channel Fox News brought in by the Vatican in June to overhaul its public-relations operation, said the pope's Twitter account would create "a free market of ideas, and that is good".

It would serve up "pearls of wisdom coming from the heart of the pope", he said, though the 140-character messages will not be written by the pope himself but by Vatican officials who will submit them to him for approval.

"We are going to get a spiritual message. The pope is not going to be walking around with a Blackberry or an iPad and no one is going to be putting words into the pope's mouth. He will tweet what he wants to tweet," Burke said.

The Vatican said: "The pope's presence on Twitter is a concrete expression of his conviction that the Church must be present in the digital arena."

Benedict wants "to ensure that the good news of Jesus Christ and the teaching of his Church is permeating the forum of exchange and dialogue that is being created by social media," it added in a statement.

The aim is to "dialogue with men and women of today wherever they are," said Cardinal Claudio Maria Celli of the Pontifical Social Communications Council.

The news of the elderly pontiff's decision to join Twitter received mixed reactions on the online community.

"Does this mean we can just tweet our sins instead of showing up for confession?" asked Twitter user Sandra Hayes.

Ryan Babel said "will he be the first priest to legally be able to follow children?" -- one of many Twitter quips on the Church's sex abuse scandals.

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Britain seeks appeal over terror suspect

BRITAIN'S interior ministry said on Monday that it has applied for permission to appeal against a decision by judges to block the extradition of terror suspect Abu Qatada to Jordan.

"We confirm that we have submitted our grounds for appeal," a Home Office spokesman told AFP.

A judge will consider the bid to challenge last month's move by Britain's Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) blocking the extradition over fears that evidence obtained through torture could be used in Abu Qatada's trial.

The radical Islamist cleric -- dubbed Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe -- was released on bail following the SIAC ruling, in a severe blow to the British government.

British authorities have kept him in custody for most of the last decade and repeatedly tried to send him to Jordan to face trial.

Abu Qatada was convicted in absentia in Jordan in 1998 for involvement in terror attacks, but both British and European judges have accepted his argument that evidence obtained by torture might be used against him in a retrial.

Prime Minister David Cameron said last month that he was "completely fed up with the fact that this man is still at large in our country".

Abu Qatada, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin in his early 50s, is currently under curfew 16 hours a day and is wearing an electronic tag, but he is free to leave his home in northwest London between 8am and 4pm.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled earlier this year that he could not be deported while there was a "real risk that evidence obtained by torture will be used against him" in a possible retrial.

Home Secretary Theresa May ordered his extradition anyway after Jordan gave assurances that he would be treated fairly.

But SIAC, a semi-secret panel of British judges that deals with national security matters, agreed last month with the European judges that he should not be deported, and he was freed on bail.

The commission said statements from Abu Qatada's former co-defendants Al-Hamasher and Abu Hawsher may have been obtained by torture and created a risk that any trial would be unfair.

The government can only challenge the ruling if it is found that there were legal problems with SIAC's ruling.

The cleric, whose real name is Omar Mohammed Othman, arrived in Britain in 1993 claiming asylum and has been a thorn in the side of successive British governments.

Videos of his sermons were found in the Hamburg flat used by some of the hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks. He has also defended the killing of Jews and attacks on Americans.

A Spanish judge once branded him the right-hand man in Europe of the late Al-Qaeda leader although Abu Qatada denies ever having met bin Laden.

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Clinton lobbies Czech govt on power plant

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lobbied the Czech government on Monday to approve an American bid for a $US10 billion ($A9.63 billion) expansion of a nuclear power plant amid fierce competition from a rival Russian offer.

Clinton made her pitch for the American energy giant Westinghouse Electric Co. in meetings with Prime Minister Petr Necas and other senior Czech officials in Prague. Speaking to reporters, she stressed the need for the Czech Republic to wean itself off of a dependency on Russia for fuel.

"We are encouraging the Czech Republic to diversify its energy sources and suppliers," Clinton said. "Given how long-term and strategic this investment is, the Czech people deserve the best value, the most tested and trustworthy technology, an outstanding safety record, responsible and accountable management."

The Czechs get 60 per cent of their oil, 70 per cent of their natural gas and all of their nuclear reactor fuel from Russia. That leaves the NATO member highly susceptible to economic and political pressure from Moscow, which dominated the Central European country from the end of World War II to the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Revitalising the Temelin nuclear power plant is a big part of the Czech agenda to radically boost its nuclear power production, defying global scepticism about the use of atomic energy in the aftermath of last year's meltdown at Japan's Fukushima plant. And the Obama administration is hoping to get some of the windfall by securing Westinghouse's bid. The project could generate 9,000 American jobs, US officials said.

For the United States, the battle for the Temelin contract is an example of an increasingly prominent element of foreign policy: Going to bat for American companies. If this was once a less-promoted if widely understood element of private diplomatic relations, what Clinton calls "economic statecraft" has now become an endeavour US officials proudly promote as part of their jobs-building effort for the United States.

"We are not shy about pressing the case for Westinghouse," Clinton said. "We believe that company offers the best option for the project in terms of technology and safety. It would clearly enhance Czech energy security and further the nuclear cooperation between our countries, and it would create jobs and economic opportunity for Czechs and Americans."

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Ukraine's government, PM resign en masse

UKRAINIAN Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and the entire government resigned on Monday in a surprise move after controversial elections as the economy teeters on the brink of recession.

The presidency said President Viktor Yanukovych had accepted Azarov's request to give up his post and become an MP, a move expected to be repeated by several cabinet ministers.

It remained unclear who would fill the powerful post of premier, with some analysts speculating it could go to a member of the elite close to Yanukovych known as the "Family".

"President Viktor Yanukovych accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, satisfying the demand of the latter," the statement added.

The move comes as a new parliament prepares to meet after October 28 legislative elections which raised new concerns about democratic standards under Yanukovych.

The ruling Regions Party appears to have retained control of the Verkhovna Rada with the help of independents despite a strong challenge from the opposition parties of boxer Vitali Klitschko and imprisoned ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko.

OSCE observers slammed the polls as a setback for Ukraine, marred by the absence of Tymoshenko who is serving a seven-year sentence on abuse of power charges she says were trumped up by Yanukovych.

But economists also fear the country is entering troubled times and could be on the brink of a new recession that would see it seek billions of dollars in disbursements from an IMF standby package.

Ukraine's economy contracted by 1.2 percent in the third quarter of this year, and several banks fear the country is heading for zero growth in 2012, not to mention a sharp devaluation of the local currency.

"This (the resignation) is linked to a number of economic challenges which Ukraine has fallen into thanks to this president and this government," said opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

A Russian-speaking bureaucrat mocked by many in Ukraine for his dry and humourless image, Azarov took office in 2010 shortly after Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko in a fiercely contested presidential election.

Azarov has always been seen as a close ally of Yanukovych, but some analysts believe his power base has been undermined by the recent rise of a "Family" of close acquaintances of the president into top positions.

Possible successors to Azarov could include First Deputy Prime Minister Valery Khoroshkovsky and National Bank chief Sergiy Arbuzov, analysts said.

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Putin holds talks in Turkey

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Monday on a trip focused on resolving sharp differences over the near 21-month conflict raging in Syria.

Protesters chanted anti-Putin slogans outside Erdogan's office and another demonstration was staged outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul before the two leaders began their meeting.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the Russian strongman will raise with Erdogan the planned deployment by NATO of Patriot missiles along Turkey's volatile border with Syria, the Interfax news agency reported.

The missile deployment "worries Russia and does not facilitate stability of the already fragile situation" in the region, Peskov said.

Turkey insists the US-made Patriots would be used for purely defensive purposes but Russia has warned that such a move could spark a broader conflict that would draw in the Western military alliance.

NATO's response is expected this week.

"Russia's position is consistent and absolutely transparent: one cannot support one side in the conflict, this cannot facilitate the settlement of the situation," Peskov was quoted as saying. "Active support of one side only provokes a conflict."

Putin was originally due to travel to Turkey in early October, but the visit was postponed because of tensions over the conflict in Syria and amid speculation about Putin's health.

Turkey, once an ally of the Damascus regime, has become one of its fiercest critics over the bloody crackdown on a rebellion that has developed into civil war and that monitoring groups say has killed more than 40,000 people.

But Moscow remains one of the few allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, routinely blocking resolutions against his regime at the UN Security Council.

Last month, Erdogan said Russia held the key to the Syrian conflict, and that if Moscow took a "positive" stance in the Security Council it could push another key Damascus ally Iran to review its policies.

Russian-Turkish tensions came to a head in October when Turkey intercepted a Syrian plane en route from Moscow to Damascus on suspicion that it had military cargo, drawing an angry response from Russia.

In Istanbul on Monday, Putin and Erdogan will co-chair a high-level cooperation council meeting, a mechanism established between the two countries to foster ties.

Putin is also due to speak by telephone with Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

It is Putin's first trip outside Russia since he visited Tajikistan on October 5 and follows speculation that the normally globe-trotting leader is having health problems.

Official pictures handed out to the press for the Istanbul meeting showed the Russian leader in good health.

Russian media reports have said Putin is suffering from a back injury, caused possibly by a bad fall while playing his favourite sport judo or falling off his horse.

His aides admitted Putin was suffering from a light sports injury when he was spotted limping at an Asian summit in September, but have denied this had had any impact on his schedule.

Putin's absence from long distance travel has also dented his strongman image.

"I ask you not to be concerned. Not to worry. Everything is fine with his health," Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov said on Friday, quoted by Russian news agencies.

"He had a minor sports injury," Ivanov added. "No one is immune from sports injuries."

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RBA to deliver a pre-Christmas rate cut

CONCERNS about slowing domestic growth should move the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to deliver an interest rate cut in time for Christmas.

The RBA board meets on Tuesday (December 4) for its last monthly rate decision until February next year, and an AAP survey of 15 economists shows that most expect a cut of 0.25 percentage points.

At its last board meeting on November 6, the RBA kept the cash rate unchanged at 3.25 per cent.

But data since, showing a slowdown in planned mining activity, plus continued weakness in the housing, manufacturing and retail sectors, are likely to push the central bank over the line, economists say.

The RBA cut the cash rate in May, June and October, but it appears the effect of this easing is only starting to be felt in the economy.

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Duchess of Cambridge pregnant

KATE Middleton is expecting a baby and has been admitted to hospital with acute morning sickness, St James' Palace has announced.

The BBC reports that members of the royal family are delighted by the news.

A Palace spokesman said the duchess was admitted to King Edward VII Hospital in central Lnodon with very acute morning sickness and is expected to stay for several days.

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