Super telescope costs inflate

THE estimated cost of the first construction phase of the world's largest radio telescope has jumped to 400 million euros ($A525.28 million), the project's director general says.

The increase of 50 million euros takes six years of accumulated inflation into account, and the figure could escalate further once additional costs of splitting the project between Africa and Australia are factored in.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope, with thousands of receptors spread over an area of a square kilometre.

Once completed, the project will allow astronomers to study distant galaxeies in their quest to answer some fundamental questions about our universe - how it began, why it is expanding and whether it contains life beyond our planet.

The SKA will be able to detect a radio signal from a planet 50 light years away.

"What we are undergoing over the coming months is a review of how much Phase 1 will cost," Philip Diamond told AFP by phone from the English city of Manchester, where the SKA scheme is headquartered.

"What we are working towards is... presenting to the board at their July board meeting our informed estimates of the cost of the first phase of the SKA," he said.

"The board will then look at that, decide if they like it, and this will be part of the process then of going out to raise money from governments for the construction."

The project's original cost estimate, 1.5 billion euros in total for phases one and two, was made in 2007, and "we decided we should update the numbers to 2013 euros", said Diamond.

Members of the SKA decided last May to split the project between South Africa and Australia, which had both been bidding to be the host.

The decision has additional cost implications, which Diamond declined to specify but said was "not a significant increase".

Construction of Phase 1, which has yet to be approved, should start by 2016.

So far, about 110 million euros had been allocated to the project for the design phase currently under way, said Diamond, reporting on a board meeting held at the end of January.

"The Phase 1 money will come from the (partner) governments once we submit the proposals for design."

There are 10 full members - Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden.

India is an associate member aspiring to full status.

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Iraq to sign prisoner swap deal with UK

BAGHDAD says it has authorised the justice minister to sign a prisoner swap deal with Britain that could see a British security guard convicted of murder in Iraq head home to serve the rest of his life sentence.

Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari and British officials have been discussing the deal, which would allow the transfer of convicts between the two countries, since at least January.

A key beneficiary would be Danny Fitzsimons, who became the first Western contractor to be convicted of a crime by an Iraqi court when he was sentenced to life in prison in February 2011 for killing a Briton and an Australian in Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone in August 2009.

An Iraqi cabinet statement on Tuesday said ministers had given Shammari "the power to negotiate and sign a draft agreement for transferring convicted prisoners between Iraq and Britain".

It did not say when such an agreement would be signed, or give any details about its provisions.

Fitzsimons, a former British soldier who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, had insisted throughout his trial that he had acted in self-defence during an alcohol-fuelled brawl.

He told the court in west Baghdad that fellow Briton Paul McGuigan and Australian Darren Hoare had burst into his room and pinned him down before pointing an M4 rifle at his face, prompting him to use his pistol to kill them. He also wounded an Iraqi guard before being detained.

Foreign security contractors had not been subject to Iraqi law until the beginning of 2009, when a security agreement between the United States and Iraq lifted their immunity.

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Indonesia passes anti-terror funding bill

INDONESIA'S parliament has passed an anti-terrorism bill that allows authorities to freeze bank accounts and confiscate assets with suspected links to militant activity.

"This is an important key piece of legislation in (Indonesia's) efforts to combat terrorism," deputy speaker Priyo Budi Santoso said in a plenary session of the 550-seat house.

The new law will also allow the government to request foreign nations to freeze accounts showing suspicious transactions that could be linked to terrorism.

The bill will take effect after being signed by the president.

Indonesia was rocked by a series of deadly terror attacks targeted at Westerners during the last decade.

Most - including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people - were blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

A crackdown on terrorism has weakened JI and key militant groups, and only low-impact attacks have been carried out in recent years by networks targeting law enforcement officers.

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Zimbabwe faces Aussie crayfish invasion

SCIENTISTS in Zimbabwe say a freshwater crayfish brought from Australia is breeding out of control in the northern Lake Kariba, devouring the food sources of other fish and putting the nation's entire aquatic ecosystem at risk.

Officials at the Zimbabwe University lake shore research station say the red claw crayfish, introduced a decade ago for a fish farming project, has no natural predators in the wild - crocodiles don't like them - and they produce clusters of eggs up to half the size of a tennis ball that hatch prolifically.

Baby crocodiles still feeding on insects have been observed eating the crayfish, as have Lake Kariba's piranha-like tiger fish, but they generally thrive in deeper water than the crayfish.

Chief ecologist Crispen Phiri said the exploding, migrant crayfish population is infesting rivers, dams, ponds and tanks much farther afield where ''the scavenger eats everything -rotting vegetation, anything organic and micro-organisms" that other aquatic life and fish need.

The red claw crayfish, scientifically Cherax Quadricarinatus, is robust and hardy and cannot be poisoned without killing other natural species, Phiri said.

It survives and multiplies in virtually any fresh water supply and though its flesh is high in protein it is not popular in the diet of ordinary Zimbabweans, even those facing food shortages in the troubled economy.

Phiri said it is not clear whether the sister crayfish, or Cherax Destructor, is infesting Lake Kariba, too. As its scientific name suggests, it is a burrower which can cause structural damage to drainage and hydroelectric installations in Kariba, one of the world's largest man made lakes stretching about 300 kilometres on the Zambezi River along the northern border with neighbouring Zambia.

Like professionals in most Zimbabwean institutions, the scientists are suffering acute shortages of funding. The station's only research vessel has been docked for more than five years awaiting cash for repairs. What the ecologists do know is that the red claw migrates deep into river systems.

"We have to do a lot more work on the crayfish invasion," Phiri told The Associated Press.

''We don't know yet what will happen to the ecosystem. It is an omnivore and eats detritus, rotting vegetation, dead fish, the eggs of bream and other aquatic life as well as all the organisms that are crucial in the whole ecological chain," he said.

Nor is it known exactly how many crayfish are in Kariba lake. Phiri says they are most visible breeding unchecked close to human settlements, harbours and slipways for boats. Kariba's "kapenta" fish, a tiny tropical whitebait or sardine that has become a staple food, was also introduced into the lake but does not migrate because it only lives in deep water lake conditions.

The red claw from Australia was first "farmed" in neighbouring Zambia but has already found its way deep into that country's lake tributaries where its worrying impact is also being urgently tracked.

The solution to the crayfish crisis, said Phiri, seems to lie in commercial exploitation in traps similar to those used to catch marine lobster.

In stores in Harare, it sells for $US9 ($A8.80) a kilogram, $US12 ($A11.73) still alive in fish shop aquariums, and far more in upmarket restaurants patronised by the wealthy well-travelled elite and Zimbabwe's growing Chinese community.

Phiri said impoverished villagers capture the red claw and relocate to water closer to urban markets in central Zimbabwe.

Neighbouring South Africa has banned commercial operations and breeding of the still water crustacean in Argentina, Mexico and Australia is strictly controlled for environmental reasons.

''We don't have the resources on the ground to licence or police exploitation on the right scale at Kariba," said Phiri. "The important thing is we don't want people to introduce it elsewhere."

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12 killed as unrest mounts in India

INDIAN troops have shot dead 10 people while two others have died in clashes as machete-wielding rioters protested against local elections in the country's restive northeast, officials say.

Official in Assam said some 100 homes were burned and 20 people, including a police official, were injured as rioters brandishing machetes went on a rampage in two districts of the oil- and tea-rich state that borders Bangladesh.

"Twelve deaths have been reported of which 10 were killed in firing by troops while two others died in clashes between rival groups," Bhupen Bora, a senior Assam home ministry official, said in Guwahati, the state's main city.

Soldiers have fanned out to try and quell the violence that erupted in Goalpara, some 120 kilometres from Guwahati, he said, adding that a security forces have also slapped a curfew on violence-hit regions.

"Army soldiers have been deployed in the troubled areas to stop the violence from spreading," Bora told AFP.

Security forces opened fire when rioters from an ethnic tribal group and a rival community opposing the elections began setting fire to villages and attacking government officials with machetes and spears, Bora said.

Television channels showed images of men and women torching houses and engaging in widespread arson.

"The situation is very critical and volatile," said Bora.

Rabha and Hasong tribal villagers are demanding local autonomy and reject government rule in the area.

The protesters said the polls for "panchayat" or village councils that were held Tuesday undermined the authority of their own Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council.

Northeast India has seen decades of friction among ethnic and separatist groups, although some rebels have recently started peace talks with the government.

More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to unrest in the the tea- and oil-rich state of Assam over the last two decades.

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World powers condemn N. Korea nuclear test

THE United States, China and Russia have led a chorus of global condemnation after North Korea defied months of stark international warnings and carried out a third nuclear test.

US President Barack Obama called for "swift and credible" action after the underground blast as even Pyongyang's top ally China voiced "firm opposition" to the nuclear test and Russia urged a halt to its "illegal actions."

The UN Security Council met in emergency session early on Tuesday, after last month passing a resolution threatening "significant action" in the event of a new nuclear test.

"We certainly hope that the council will be able to send a clear message of strong condemnation," Philip Parham, Britain's deputy UN ambassador, told reporters as he entered the closed meeting in the UN's New York headquarters.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned the test was a "grave threat" to his country that "cannot be tolerated," while Britain called for a "robust response" and Germany said further sanctions should be considered.

Even Iran - under harsh UN sanctions over its own controversial nuclear program - used the occasion to call for a nuclear weapons-free world, while defending its own atomic program, which it claims is entirely peaceful.

And nuclear-armed Pakistan, widely believed to have been the source of key technology in the 1990s that allowed North Korea to develop the bomb, said it regretted the action.

"Pakistan believes that all countries should comply with their respective international obligations," a spokesman for the foreign ministry said.

The North Korean test came just hours before Obama was to deliver his annual State of the Union address later on Tuesday.

The US president called the test a "highly provocative act" that - following the North's December 12 ballistic missile launch - undermined regional stability and violated UN Security Council resolutions.

"North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs constitute a threat to US national security and to international peace and security," Obama said in a statement.

"The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community," he said, adding the United States would do whatever was necessary to defend its allies.

The United States, China, Russia and the other major powers face intense pressure to act over North Korea's defiance of sanctions imposed after previous tests in 2006 and 2009.

North Korea said it staged a successful test of a "miniaturised" bomb, and the US intelligence community said Pyongyang had "probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion" of "approximately several kilotons."

The office of the Director of National Intelligence said it was continuing to analyse the event that happened at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon also condemned the test as "a clear and grave violation" of the resolutions and called on North Korea to "reverse course."

China, the isolated North's closest ally providing trade and aid, expressed "strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition" when it summoned Pyongyang's ambassador.

Beijing urged its neighbour "to honour its commitment to denuclearisation, and not to take any actions which might worsen the situation."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he expected the UN Security Council to agree on "an adequate response" to the test.

"North Korea should stop its nuclear program and should get back onto the non-proliferation treaty," Lavrov said. "Then it will stop its international isolation."

Rounding out the opposition of all five permanent members of the Security Council, France's President Francois Hollande condemned the blast "in the strongest terms" and said France would back "strong action" by the council.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said the test showed "the North Korean regime's reckless disregard for the global will" adding it was "unconscionable" that Pyongyang "squanders limited resources" while its people starve.

In the Asia-Pacific region, nuclear-armed India called the test a "matter of deep concern," while Australia, the Philippines and Taiwan condemned the blast.

Beijing had made a special effort to try to head off the move, according to a UN diplomat who has taken part in recent consultations.

"The Chinese gave the North Koreans a strong warning against carrying out a test as it became apparent that it was imminent," said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"What the North Koreans have done now is a big challenge to the Chinese," the diplomat said.

Brazil meanwhile said it was deeply concerned and urged Pyongyang to comply with UN resolutions.

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US stocks flat ahead of Obama speech

US stocks have opened flat on Tuesday as markets looked ahead to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address in the evening.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 7.99 points (0.06 per cent) to 13,979.23.

The S&P 500 index rose 0.28 point (0.02 per cent) to 1517.29, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite fell 0.61 (0.02 per cent) to 3191.40.

Investors will be watching Obama's nationally televised speech at 9:00 pm (1300 AEST Wednesday) to gauge "content and tone as a guide for assessing the likelihood of avoiding sequestration slated to go into effect March 1," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

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Disabled cruise ship still drifting

A CRUISE ship packed with 4200 travellers is adrift in the Gulf of Mexico for a third day, waiting to be towed into the US port of Mobile, Alabama, a company spokesman says.

None of the 3143 passengers and 1086 crew aboard the 272-metre Carnival Triumph was injured in the fire that crippled the vessel on Sunday.

It is due to be taken into port in Mobile on Thursday instead of Progreso, Mexico, Vance Gulliksen, a spokesman for Carnival Cruise Lines, told AFP.

"We have been told that there is running water in the cabins, albeit cold water, so guests are able to shower. Some toilets are operational in the public areas and some cabins," the spokesman said.

"There was a period last night that the toilets were down but technicians were able to get some of them back on line this morning," he said.

Passengers are able to dine in the poolside restaurant, he added.

"We're in constant contact with the ship and have been told that overall mood with guests is good under the circumstances and guests are making the most of the situation," Gulliksen said.

The company had said earlier that passengers will receive a full refund and transportation expenses.

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